Hero surgeons and nurses ‘risk their lives’ to complete complex heart bypass surgery as Russian hospital is engulfed by smoke and flames in inferno
- Medics had just cut open the patient’s chest when a fire engulfed the hospital
- But chief surgeon Valentin Filatov, 29, refused to evacuate his operating theatre
- Instead, he said he needed they save the patient. ‘What else do you do?’ he said
- The surgery was a ‘a coronary artery bypass graft,’ a complex heart operation
- Medics used fans to keep smoke out the operating room and ran a power cable
- The medical team were later praised by the local mayor for their heroism
Hero surgeons and nurses ‘risked their lives’ inside a burning hospital on Friday to complete a ‘complex’ heart bypass operation.
Medics had just cut open the male patient’s chest when an inferno engulfed a 114-year-old hospital in south eastern Russian city of Blagoveschensk.
Chief surgeon Valentin Filatov, 29, refused to evacuate his operating theatre despite flames and smoke raging through the building.
‘We were scared, of course. We are human,’ he said.
‘We couldn’t leave, we had to save the patient… We continued the surgery, what else do you do?’
He explained: ‘It was a coronary artery bypass graft, one of the most complex cardiac surgeries.’
Hero surgeons and nurses ‘risked their lives’ inside a burning hospital on Friday to complete a ‘complex’ heart bypass operation
Medics had just cut open the male patient’s chest when an inferno engulfed a 114-year-old hospital in south eastern Russian city of Blagoveschensk
Chief surgeon Valentin Filatov, 29, refused to evacuate his operating theatre despite flames and smoke raging through the building
After the surgery had been finished, the patient was evacuated and rushed to a nearby hospital
Medics used fans to keep smoke out of the operating room and ran in a power cable to keep the suite supplied with electricity.
Mayor Oleg Imameev praised the ‘heroism’ of the surgical team for risking their lives and remaining at their post in the operating theatre at the Cardiological Centre of Amur State Medical Academy.
But Dr Filatov said: ‘There was no decision-making about it. The operation just had to continue. We completed it in full.’
A team of eight doctors chose to stay in the hospital, despite the blaze, in order to finish the heart operation
Chief surgeon Filatov chose to continue with the surgery because he wanted to save the patient’s life
Firefighters took more than two hours to put out the blaze in the tsarist-era hospital, built in 1907.
The ministry said 128 people were immediately evacuated from the hospital as the fire broke out on the roof.
No one was reported hurt and the patient was rushed to a nearby hospital.
A total of 67 patients and dozens of staff were evacuated from the burning hospital by firefighters
Firefighters took more than two hours to put out the blaze in the tsarist-era hospital, built in 1907
