"There was fear in the eyes of expectant mothers": the story of a doctor from the film 20 Days in Mariupol at The Museum of Civilian Voices of Rinat Akhmetov Foundation
Dmytro was very happy when he received a photo of the child. It was sent by a woman he delivered a baby in Mariupol, under shelling, in March 2022. Dmytro Puchkov is one of the characters of the Academy Award-winning film 20 Days in Mariupol. The obstetrician entrusted his story to The Museum of Civilian Voices of Rinat Akhmetov Foundation.
He was completing his internship. He worked in two medical institutions in Mariupol: the regional hospital and the 3rd maternity hospital. The last time Dmytro was on duty at the maternity hospital was on March 7, and then he could not get there because of heavy shelling. On March 9, the occupiers dropped a bomb on the building.
“I found out about it indirectly - a lot of pregnant women and women in labour were brought to the regional hospital where I was living at the time. There were many wounded; one woman died because of blood loss, and another pregnant woman could not move because of the shrapnel in her legs,” Dmytro recalls.
There was fear in the women's eyes. Each of them was about to give birth, and there was not a safe place in the city. A few days later, russian troops hit the regional hospital.
“My department was on the 5th floor. The building shook. Then, we took all the patients down to the basement. It was very cold,” says Dmytro.
Dmytro tells about deliveries and caesarean sections during the siege of Mariupol, a fire in his own apartment and searching for medicines in destroyed pharmacies at https://bit.ly/48VkVKX
A collection of stories from other characters of the film 20 Days in Mariupol - here: https://bit.ly/437onRq
Dmytro's story was included in The Museum of Civilian Voices of Rinat Akhmetov Foundation. The Museum collects stories of Ukrainian civilians about the war. Its archive contains more than 100,000 stories. Tell yours on the Museum's portal, https://civilvoicesmuseum.org/, or on the free hotline, 0 (800) 509 001.
