Ukrainian military doctors successfully performed a delicate surgery: they removed a small unexploded grenade from deep in the chest cavity of a wounded soldier.
It has not yet been explained how the grenade got lodged in the soldier’s chest. The smaller equipment can be fired by a kind of rifle.
The unprecedented surgical procedure was reported by Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar, who described it as a “shock”. “It turns out that not all wounds in the heart area are lethal,” she wrote in a post on social media.
She added that the grenade was recovered under the supervision of two military explosives experts. They ensured the safety of medical staff and gave instructions on how to handle the explosive to prevent it from exploding.
The operation was performed by military surgeon Andriy Verba. The 57-year-old doctor is considered one of the most experienced in the Ukrainian army.
The surgery had to be modified for safety reasons — electrocoagulation, a standard procedure for heart surgery that stops the bleeding, was not used to prevent the electrical current from detonating the grenade.
The Russian VOG fragmentation grenade that was housed in the soldier’s body is four centimeters in diameter and weighs 275 grams.
VOG grenades were first developed in the Soviet Union in the 1960s. They are used in combat action with various types of grenade launchers and have a range of up to 400 meters.
The Ukrainian military has reported that these weapons have been used against them since the start of the conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014, including launching from unmanned drones. A VOG grenade normally explodes 20 seconds after being thrown.
Ukrainian military analysts marveled not only at how this unexploded grenade was recovered, but how it remained explosive after the operation and posed a risk until it was defused by experts.
The patient’s name has not been released, but he is believed to be 28 years old.
An adviser to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Anton Gerashchenko, wrote in his social networks, citing Ukrainian military sources: “About this patient, I can say that he was born in 1994, now he will be sent to rehabilitation, his condition is stable.”
“I think this case will end up in medical books,” added Gerashchenko.
This text was originally published here.
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