CNN
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Kiev was burning as Dr. Boriz Toddrov ran through the city in an ambulance, rocking the deep sound of an explosion and the horrifying sound of Russian drones flying overhead.
He decided to deliver valuable cargo: the human heart.
Todorov’s patient – the child – was seriously ill in the hospital. He had time to act.
The child has been living with heart disease for several years, but her condition worsened earlier this week, and Todorov knew that a new mind was her only chance.
So when it became available from a child donor on the other side of the city, he did not wait for the Russians to stop the attack.
Russia has stepped up its air attacks against Ukraine in recent weeks. It fired more than 400 drones and 18 missiles on Thursday, including eight ballistic missiles and six cruise missiles overnight.
When Ukrainian authorities called on people to hide in bomb shelters and basements, Todorov and his staff made a 10-mile drive from Okmatodito Children’s Hospital in western Kiev to the city’s Heart Institute on the eastern bank of the river.
The Ukrainian Air Force managed to fire or disable the majority of drones and missiles, but two people were killed and dozens more injured in the attack on Thursday.
The massive attack on Kiev on Thursday was the latest in the deadly attack of Russia. Just the day before, Moscow launched more than 700 drones (new records) against Ukraine in one night.
Todurov, director of the Heart Institute, and his team worked non-stop throughout the two-night attack.
He traveled around the city after undergoing cardiac surgery at the lab on Wednesday. He removes the heart from the donor’s body.
He then personally escorted the city’s organs.
Crossing the bridge over the bridge is extremely dangerous as the vehicle is exposed and the Ukrainian air defense targets Russian drones and missiles when it is above the river to minimize the impact of falling, as vehicles are exposed and Ukrainian air prevention is exposed.
Videos filmed during the desperate drive show a huge fire burning near the road as Todorov drives. “We have a heart,” he says calmly.
The Russian attack on the capital was still ongoing when Todorov entered the surgical theatre of the Heart Institute, headed for a large medical team and transplanted the heart into the patient’s body.
In a stunning moment captured by camera and shared with CNN, a new heart beating in the chest of a patient is seen hours after Russian drones and missiles have passed through Kiev as rain fell in the city.
“The heart is working and the pressure is stable. I hope (the patient) recovers and lives longer,” the doctor said.
The Ukrainian Transplant Cooperative Centre said in a statement that the donor was a four-year-old girl who was declared brain dead by the Medical Council after suffering serious injuries.
The girl’s mother herself is a medical worker and agreed to donate her daughter’s organs.
And, just as Todurov had implanted a girl’s heart into the body of a patient at the Heart Institute, her kidneys had been implanted into a 14-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl into the liver, the center said. The other two patients were in Okhmatdyt Hospital, so no transport was required to deliver the organs.
The coordination center said two of the three recipients were in critical condition and would not have lived for days or weeks without undergoing a transplant.
“May the small donors have a peaceful rest. We appreciate the pathetic dol to our family and their difficult but important decisions,” the Centre said.
