The doctors who performed the operation at the cardiac surgery center in Blagoveshchensk during the fire did not at first take the news of the emergency seriously.

The head of the cardiac surgery department, cardiovascular surgeon Valentin Filatov, who supervised the operation, told RT about this.

“A nurse came to us and said that an evacuation was in progress, as a fire started on the roof.

We naturally took it as a joke, saying that April 1 was yesterday.

We were surprised because there were no signs of a fire, ”says the doctor.

However, after the fire brigade arrived at the clinic building and began to extinguish the fire, the doctors still smelled burning.

“But due to the fact that we had the main stage of work, we worried more about the patient than about ourselves.

It was necessary to accomplish what we had planned, so the operation proceeded further.

Naturally, we had to cooperate and work faster, ”Filatov says.

Anesthesiologist-resuscitator Stanislav Fuks, in turn, told RT that the surgeons did not understand how the situation would unfold, however, the operation was successful.

“We did not fully realize the whole situation that was happening, but we saw what was happening and did our job - we tried to finish it faster so that the patient was healthy, because this is the most important thing.

The heart surgery was complicated, but everything went smoothly, ”Fuchs explained.

According to him, the surgeons realized that at some point there might be a need for an air source for the doctors themselves.

“I asked for a respirator or compressed air, because I already smelled burning.

If the surgeon failed, then, accordingly, there would be no one to complete the operation.

We had respirators at the ready, firefighters stood outside the door at that time and waited for us to finish the operation, ”Fuchs said.

The head physician of the clinic, Alexander Korotkikh, clarified that the operation for planned coronary artery bypass grafting lasted about four to five hours, and all this time he was in touch with the firefighters.

“When the fire broke out, the patient was already on the operating table, the chest was opened, that is, the operation could not be stopped,” RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.

Korotkikh said that the operation of the operating room was supported by a generator, since the two-story building of the cardio center was de-energized due to a fire.

“They turned off the centralized oxygen supply, made the transfer of oxygen only in the operating room, everyone was given protective respirators, they were not needed - there was no smoke on the ground floor, where the operation was taking place,” explained Korotkikh.

After the operation, the patient was taken out through the fire escape and taken to the Amur regional hospital in a ventilated resuscitation vehicle.

"We did our best"

Recall that on the morning of April 2, a fire broke out in the cardiac surgery clinic of the Amur State Medical Academy.

The roof of the building, which was built at the beginning of the twentieth century and belongs to the objects of cultural heritage, caught fire.

Due to the wooden roofs, the area of ​​the fire increased rapidly.

About 120 people had to be evacuated from the building.

At the time of the fire, the clinic was carrying out two operations at once - one laparoscopic, when doctors only need to make small incisions, and the second - on an open heart.

  • EMERCOM employees extinguish a fire in the building of the cardiac surgery center in Blagoveshchensk

  • Reuters

  • © Russian Emergencies Ministry

According to a RT source in the emergency services, their workers took all possible measures in order to protect both the surgeons and the patient.

“When they explained to the firemen that there were still doctors and patients in the two operating rooms, they did everything possible so that the operating rooms not only did not be damaged by fire, but also did not flood with water,” the interlocutor told RT.

Subsequently, it became known that one of the operated patients was on mechanical ventilation, and he was promptly transported to another hospital. 

"They acted clearly and harmoniously"

The Governor of the Amur Region Vasily Orlov instructed to reward the medical workers who participated in the operation during the fire, and the EMERCOM employees were instructed to check all medical facilities in the region.

Orlov also made public the names of the doctors: they were cardiovascular surgeons Valentin Filatov and Alexander Filippov, anesthesiologists Viktor Nikitin and Stanislav Fuks, perfusionist Georgy Kondartov, as well as an operating nurse Angelica Khorsak, anesthetist nurse Elena Andreevskaya and nurse Irina Khanganuka.

  • Evacuation of a patient from a burning building of a cardiac surgery center in Blagoveshchensk

  • RIA News

  • © Press Service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation

Co-chairman of the central headquarters of the All-Russian Popular Front (ONF) Leonid Roshal, in turn, offered to present state awards to medical workers.

"On behalf of the All-Russian Popular Front and the National Medical Chamber, we express our gratitude to our heroes and believe that their act should be marked with state awards," the press service of the ONF quoted Roshal's statement.

He added that he expresses his deep gratitude to "the surgeons, operating nurses and nurses of the Blagoveshchensk Cardiology Center, who, in the most difficult conditions, with a threat to their own lives, perfectly completed the operation of a serious cardiac patient."

Roshal noted that Russian doctors once again "proved their professional maturity and readiness for self-sacrifice in any situation."

Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko also expressed gratitude to the participants in the operation.

“The doctors of the cardiac surgery clinic acted clearly and harmoniously, did everything to complete the open-heart surgery and save the patient despite the fire,” Murashko quoted TASS as saying.