Surgeons forced to perform child’s heart operation with torch during Kyiv blackout

Doctors in Kyiv were performing open-heart surgery on a 14-year-old boy this week when a blackout hit, and they were forced to continue with the light of a torch.

Following a fresh wave of strikes on Ukraine, Kyiv Heart Institute used backup generators to keep life support machines going.

“Everything was co-ordinated. Nobody panicked,” Dr Mikhail Zagrychuk, a transplant surgeon told As It Happens.

“They managed to finish this surgery, and fortunately this child survived, and the surgery was successful. But the first couple of seconds ... it was very horrible.”

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