Guardian angels in white coats: how doctors saved victims of the terrorist attack in Crocus

“Doctors are selflessly fighting for the lives and recovery of the victims,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the day after the attack. “I want to say thank you to everyone who provided assistance at the scene of the tragedy.” That evening, 44 ambulances were working at Crocus – the first one arrived at the scene of the tragedy within 4 minutes after the call. Three medical helicopters flew to Crocus. 94 people were hospitalized in 14 hospitals in the city.

The terrorist attack at Crocus became a tragedy of unprecedented scale, a truly all-Russian tragedy – 144 people became victims of non-humans, including six children… 551 people are considered victims. There certainly could have been more casualties if not for the professionalism and dedication of our doctors.

As the deputy chief physician for the medical department of the Research Institute of Emergency Medicine named after A.N. told MK. N.V. Sklifosovsky Artem Anatolyevich Saprin, in the evening and night of March 22, 29 victims were delivered to the institute by different routes – both by land and by air. Of these, 19 have already been discharged; at present, 10 people remain at the institute. “Now their condition is stable,” says Saprin. “Out of these ten, one woman remains in the intensive care unit, and her condition has already been sufficiently stabilized by today. We hope that she will be transferred to a regular ward in the coming days.”

— Artem Anatolyevich, tell us about those who entered that night.

— Firstly, among those admitted there were a lot of married couples – husband and wife. For example, in one of these couples the husband was in a relatively serious but stable condition, and his wife was admitted in an extremely serious condition. The literally heroic, without exaggeration, efforts of our specialists managed to stabilize it over the coming days.

They came to the concert together, but at the time of the terrorist attack, due to a large number of people, they were still separated by streams… Therefore, they came to us with a slight time difference. What happened to them: they could not go down the stairs from the second floor and therefore began to go down using some improvised means in the form of ropes. They had to jump from a height of two to three meters, as a result of which the woman suffered multiple severe fractures of the pelvic bones. The specificity of the situation was that outwardly this woman had no traces of wounds at all. After a comprehensive diagnosis, we saw that she had multiple fractures. And literally 10 minutes after arriving to us, she was already on the operating table.

— How long after the incident did you start receiving victims?

— The first patients were delivered within one hour from the moment of the emergency. This became possible, among other things, due to the fact that prompt delivery was organized, and the most seriously injured were delivered one after another by helicopter. Of the 29 who entered the institute, eight were transported by air ambulance.

What other story do I remember? One of the patients felt a blow to her back, and due to the fact that she was in close proximity to the perpetrators of the terrorist attack, she decided to pretend to be dead in order to save herself. And for an hour, until she realized that the special services and firefighters were already entering there, she lay motionless on the floor. And the blow to the back that she felt turned out to be a gunshot wound to the chest. Apparently, on adrenaline, she didn’t even realize it. The injury was quite serious, but she managed to survive. When she was brought to us, specialists immediately took her to hybrid operating rooms (surgeons of different specialties can work in these at the same time, which is especially important for patients with multiple injuries), bypassing intensive care.

According to Saprin, the victims were saved by doctors of many specialties – resuscitators, surgeons, traumatologists, cardiac surgeons, vascular surgeons… Including neurologists.

“After terrorist attacks, due to shock, victims often have strokes and heart attacks,” continues the deputy chief physician. “All this needs to be diagnosed very quickly in order to begin providing assistance immediately.” Psychologists and specialists in burn surgery and toxicology also worked with the arriving victims, because among the patients there were many who did not receive gunshot wounds, but suffered as a result of the fire – they came to us with fairly extensive burns, with a high degree of burns. poisoning by combustion products, carbon monoxide.

Separately, Artem Anatolyevich noted the dedicated work of the nursing staff, because, as a rule, one doctor requires at least two or three nurses. The junior medical staff also provided great help and support to the doctors.

Artem Anatolyevich also said that that evening, as soon as the Sklif doctors learned about the terrorist attack, everyone returned to their jobs.

“We didn’t even invite anyone in particular, we didn’t call – everyone came on their own,” he says. “In my lifetime, there were explosions in the metro, hostages in Nord-Ost, and the victims in the Lame Horse were brought to us… And that’s why all the employees came that evening. Too many arrived. We have a proven notification scheme; Drills are regularly conducted on how to deal with such emergencies. About 30 minutes after the incident, we were at our workplaces. But at that time we did not yet know how many victims would be brought to us. thirty? 100? Therefore, all operating rooms were prepared very quickly, additional intensive care beds were deployed… And even then, when in the middle of the night we began to understand that there would be no more new wave of admissions, colleagues did not want to leave and everyone remained at their jobs until the morning. In fact, we are always prepared for anything, every day. But let this never happen…

Head of anti-shock resuscitation, Research Institute of Emergency Medicine named after. N.V. Sklifosovsky Stanislav Albertovich Badygov received the most seriously injured in the terrorist attack. He has been working in the department for more than 25 years. He calls the most serious terrorist attack in the underground passage under Pushkin Square in 2000: “This was the first time, so it was more difficult for doctors; there were no proven tactics for dealing with such large-scale incidents.” On Pushkinskaya at that time, let us remind you, 13 people were killed and 118 people were injured.

As Stanislav Albertovich said, the spectrum of patients is very different – with injuries, wounds, after falls from a height, serious conditions due to aggravated diseases…

“We accept patients, examine them and stabilize them at the same time,” the head of the department reveals the specifics of the department’s work. “After the specialists stabilize the patient, we decide which department to transfer him to, or prepare the patient for surgery.

…On that day, March 22, Stanislav Albertovich was on vacation, but, having learned from the news about what had happened, even before the gathering of doctors was announced, he immediately went to the department. At the same time, he called his colleagues so that they would also come, and someone dialed him himself and offered to help. Real doctors, doctors from God, don’t know any other way.

“Everyone came to help the duty shift,” continues Stanislav Albertovich. “The victims were treated by six doctors from our department and eight nurses. Those wounded who came with gunshot wounds and bleeding – initially there were three of them – were immediately admitted to the operating unit. The rest, who had wounds, burns, and poisoning from combustion products, came to us. We received them, examined them, stabilized them. Some were then transferred to the burn center, some to the poisoning center, some were taken to the operating room, and after the operations they were transferred to another intensive care unit. And we, accordingly, received the following victims, who had already been brought to us from other hospitals. The last patient was admitted at half past three in the morning – she was a woman with burns, transferred to us from the Khimki hospital.

— At what age did the seriously injured people come to you?

– Mostly young people.

— What is included in the concept of “resuscitation measures” in general terms?

— We must restore the patient’s vital functions, such as ensuring breathing, restoring cardiac activity, consciousness, etc. It is important to restore these functions, because if this is not done urgently, the patient can be lost.

— How hard was it to work that night?

“You are unlikely to see any expressed emotions among our doctors, those who have been working here for a long time. Although all this is scary and mentally difficult, you still get used to it a little, because we receive serious patients every day. That night, as on all other days, we were faced with the task of carrying out all the necessary measures to save people as quickly and as smoothly as possible, and we had to focus on this, throwing away all emotions. That is, to examine, stabilize and admit the next patient – this is our priority task.