Surgeons donned body armour for a highly dangerous operation to save the life of a Russian soldier who had become a 'human bomb'.
Junior Sergeant Nikolay Pasenko, 41, had been hit by a Ukrainian attack, and unexploded ordnance from an automatic grenade launcher was embedded inside him, under his heart.
The ammunition shattered his ribs, damaged a lung and lodged near his spine, between the aorta and the inferior vena cava; the largest vein in the body.
The lethal explosive showed up on X-rays and the gunner initially balked at surgery.
“I was against it. I did not want the doctors to suffer as the munitions could have exploded,” said Pasenko.
But the medics put on body armour vests and head military surgeon Lt-Col Dmitry Kim ignored the soldier’s warning that he could detonate on the operating table.
“So we’ll blow up together,” replied medical corps Lt-Col Kim moments before performing the delicate surgery.
The risk of an explosion was assessed as “extremely high”, but failure to operate left the father at risk of fatal bleeding.
"Despite this, the military doctors together with their civilian counterparts donned body armour under their medical gowns and proceeded with this utmost intricate surgery,” said a statement from the Russian defence ministry.
The operation was successful and the soldier said of the medics: “They are the real heroes.”
“We were warned there was a risk of ammunition detonation, but no one refused,” said Lt-Col Kim, based at the Mandryk Central Military Hospital in Moscow whose team moved to Belgorod to conduct the surgery.
“The ammunition was located between the aorta and the inferior vena cava.
“It's not every day that you take an [explosive] out of a person, and in a place where moving to the right or left can lead to the death of the patient.
“When the ammunition ended up in a bucket of sand, everyone exhaled, smiled and laughed.”
A second operating theatre and a full team of surgeons were on standby in case the ordnance had detonated during the “unique operation”.
The embedded explosive was from a Ukrainian strike with an automatic mounted grenade launcher AGS-17, said reports.
Lt-Col Kim said that as they operated they “didn’t know if the ammunition had detonated or not”.
It turned out it had not, so there was acute danger as a relieved Pasenko told how he was wounded two weeks ago.
“We were tasked to take a forest belt with Ukrainian positions,” he said. “We took it, in a fierce battle. I did not understand what happened. There was a blow to the edge of the armour and that was it.
“I did not lose consciousness - I just continued to move.”
"Now you see that I am sitting in front of you,” said the junior sergeant.
“My thanks to surgeon Dmitry Kim and I will be grateful to him for the rest of my life.”
