“I am a healthcare professional with 20 years of work experience. But then I had a shock”

Maryna Dedova, Vadym’s mother, 40 years old:

Puddles of blood. Later, when I came in the morning, I saw all this with my own eyes. I was shocked. I am a healthcare worker and I have seen lots of things. I have 20 years of work experience and I saw many different cases. But at that time, I was in shock because it was my kid.

I acted reflexively. Got the bandages quickly as the blood was running. Everything had to be done quickly. It's good that we had our own car in the yard. I bandaged the kids quickly, as good as I could. We put them in the car and in just 10-15 minutes phoned the casualty/emergency department. They met us there.

We used to have a store, but since the time of perestroika, it stayed abandoned and was not cared for. Well, the kids, of course, were hanging around and playing there. And there it happened. Even now, two months later, there are still traces of blood...

It happened on 20 August. I think it was at half past nine in the evening. I was in the yard and heard an explosion. The explosion was just violent. It seemed to me that it was right in the yard. I guessed that those were our kids.

I quickly grabbed the telephone: "Vadym!" He picked up, but I heard that his voice was unusual. "Come back home quickly!" Then people ran up and they brought him. Other kids got a concussion. He didn't say anything at first. They didn't understand what had happened. And when another one came, he had blood all over his legs. It was just pouring. Then we noticed that Vadym was wounded too. Tell us how you stood there [on the accident site].

Vadym, the son:

There were four stones here, we lit up the fire. I was standing, a friend of mine was sitting. I was closer to this thing. Well, we lit it up and it was burning fine. And then it exploded. We all ran out into the street. And then went to my home.

We found that thing in a sand quarry, on a hill. I don't know what it was. Such a small cylinder, quite low, and stuffed with something. We burned two similar ones before. They just burned out and that's it. And the third one exploded.

I was scared at first. My head ached and my ears ached too. Then I went home. I walked as if I was not myself. I came home, sat down and started to feel strong pain.

Maryna, Vadym’s mother:

The fragments remained. There are many fragments left. The doctors said there was no use taking them out. They said they either would not disturb him, or they would go out by themselves. And now they go out by themselves. He picks them out himself. They are just tiny, like an eyelet of a needle, I guess.

The injury itself was not serious, but the doctors said there could be consequences from the concussion. We were prescribed a consultation with an ENT specialist and an ophthalmologist. Vadym had one eye with a burn, as if an eye burn from welding. They put drops in his eyes. Now everything seems to be fine.

When we were in the hospital here, in Petrivka, I don't know how the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation found out my telephone number, but they called me and introduced themselves, saying that they were from the Foundation and that they learned about our accident. I really liked the attitude. They were very considerate. It was a female voice. She asked: “Maybe you need some kind of help, some expensive medications? Just tell us and we will help. Later we can send you to rehabilitation.” When we came back from the hospital, she called: “How are you doing there?” She asked about our recovery.

We are very grateful to the Foundation and to Rinat Leonidovych [Akhmetov] himself. He is the only one who cares. He is the only one who established the Humanitarian Foundation. Nobody else, no one thinks about us, nobody cares about us.

The sanatorium [health centre] was very good. At first, the son did not want to be there, because there were no children there. But it turned out to be very good there. He liked it. He was given a massage, we went to speleotherapy – this is breathing salt vapours. Mud cakes and therapeutic baths. And so, after those baths, he came up to me, got up in the morning, I looked and there was no need to change a bandage!

Son:

The wounds were quite deep, so that you could see the tendon. The finger hurt very much. There are still some small fragments inside. They move up little by little, such small pieces of iron. I take them with tweezers and pull them out.

Mother:

We can hear it when shelling occurs. Donetsk is close, just some 10-15 kilometres. Sometimes we even hear small arms shooting. And when some heavy shellfire happens, then our windows rattle.

War is always bad. War is difficult and it is painful. We are inextricably connected with Luhansk as our relatives are there. We cannot get through to them, at least to come and bring some food. You have to stand in a line to bring a bag. Old women crawl on their all fours over this bridge. When will this all end? We dream about it.