As a British military doctor, a doctor saves lives in Ukraine
- Doug Faulkner
- BBC News
Photo author, Assistance to Syria
David Knott previously operated in Syria
Today, Thursday, traumatologist David Knott was far from Ukraine – in London. But that did not stop him from rescuing the leg of people affected by the war in Ukraine.
Oleksandr, the Ukrainian doctor who performed the operation, has never done this before. But a little over a week ago, he watched Professor Knott do it in a Ukrainian hospital.
Alexander photographed the wound on his smartphone and sent it to Professor Knott, who had returned to Britain by then. An experienced military surgeon confirmed that the operation was necessary. He also sent a video to a Ukrainian doctor showing a previous similar operation.
“I was very nervous and worked slowly, step by step, when I was doing operas. But it was successful thanks to David Knott,” said Alexander.
Born in Carmarthen, Wales, Professor Knott has worked in many conflict zones, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
Fortunately for Alexander and his doctor, the consultant surgeon, who now works at St. Mary’s Hospital in London, recently visited Ukraine, where Ukrainian surgeons are being trained on how to treat war wounds.
Russia is launching artillery and missile strikes on Ukrainian cities, so hospitals now have many units with explosion wounds.
The shelling, according to Nott, resulted in horrific injuries. in fact, the impact on severe shrapnel wounds of soft tissue, bones and limbs.
Photo author, Getty Images
David Knott has worked in war-torn countries around the world
A new blast wave could cause significant damage, the surgeon said. If a person meets on her way, she is able to tear off limbs. However, if the blast strikes a building, the damage can also cause serious injuries.
Barotrauma is of particular concern as Russia also uses thermobaric weapons, also known as vacuum bombs. They cause hemorrhages in the brain or lungs, and the victims choke on blood. In addition, they cause rupture of the eardrums and viscera.
Professor Knott says that he has visited almost all of Ukraine – “north, east, southeast, west”, but does not name the specific hospitals and hospitals he visited, so as not to make them a target of subsequent Russian shelling. For the same reasons, the BBC does not name Alexander’s real name and whereabouts.
During the Syrian war, Professor Knott used Skype from his London office to help with operations in Aleppo. A few days later, the hospital was bombed. And, according to the doctor, he will never know if there was a connection between the former and the latter.
According to Professor Knott, Russian troops fired on 115 hospitals in Ukraine.
“The shelling of doctors and the killing of doctors are also weapons, disgusting weapons,” he said.
During his time in Ukraine, Professor Knott tried to show the operations he performed to as many Ukrainian doctors as possible. Special enterprises were operations on wounded limbs, skin grafts and covering damaged bones.
But Professor Knott’s mission, a joint operation of his own charity and the international organization UOSSM (Union of Medical and Support Organizations), is not over at this stage. Next, after leaving Ukraine, he consults Ukrainian doctors, as in the case of a complex operation on his leg, which was performed by Alexander.
During this operation, a piece of skin from under the wounded man’s knee closed the wound and protected it from damage and bone damage.
“Such operations are very complicated, they can be serious problems,” says Professor Knott.
But despite all the challenges, the result was amazing. “Everything went really well,” says the British surgeon.
And for Alexander it was very operative to have professional advice from someone who has practical experience in such.
“And increase that, when he said, everything will be fine,” – says the Ukrainian doctor.
He admires his British colleague, who, as Alexander says, “showed us, ordinary doctors, how to fight on the medical front.”
He also points out that knowledge of such operations is “very necessary in our situation”, because right now, due to the shelling, the number of such injuries with bare bones is extremely high.
Professor Knot also made a selection of slides and videos about the operation for military wounds, and sent them to “as many doctors in Ukraine as possible.”
He also hopes that surgeons like Oleksandr, whom he taught, will pass this knowledge on to other colleagues, and that in the near future the greatest Ukrainian surgeons know what to do with such injuries.
Unfortunately, it seems that Ukrainian doctors will need these changes for a long time.
According to the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, the battles in Donbass can be compared to the largest battles of the Second World War – “thousands of tanks, armored personnel carriers, aircraft and artillery.”
For Professor Nott, what is happening now in Ukrainian cities such as Mariupol is reminiscent of what he saw in Aleppo.
Photo author, Getty Images
Operation in one of the Ukrainian hospitals, not related to the mission of David Knott
“The tactics are the same as in Syria. Absolutely the same,” said the British doctor.
“When I was in Aleppo in 2016, the city was simply razed to the ground,” he said.
And Alexander says that now he has to operate on a “terrible wound”, which he, as a doctor, hopes to never see.
“We would treat ‘normal’.” Habitual fractures. Or replace injuries, he tells our grandparents, “he said.
And he adds: whatever happens, the doctors stay and keep their work, every day.