Russian doctors carry out open heart surgery as firemen fight hospital blaze

Inside the hospital, the medical team work to complete the operation after a fire broke out on the hospital roof, moments into the surgery. PHOTO: REUTERS Outside the hospital, firefighters can be seen battling a fire that broke out at a cardiac surg
Outside the hospital, firefighters can be seen battling a fire that broke out at a cardiac surgery centre in Blagoveshchensk in Russia. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Inside the hospital, the medical team work to complete the operation after a fire broke out on the hospital roof, moments into the surgery. PHOTO: REUTERS Outside the hospital, firefighters can be seen battling a fire that broke out at a cardiac surg
Inside the hospital, the medical team work to complete the operation after a fire broke out on the hospital roof, moments into the surgery. PHOTO: REUTERS

MOSCOW • A team of doctors successfully finished open heart surgery inside a Russian hospital that caught fire on Friday as firefighters battled the flames from the outside, regional emergency services said.

The wooden-roofed building in the far eastern city of Blagoveshchensk caught fire and 60 patients were evacuated as it filled with smoke.

But a team of eight doctors performing the operation on the ground floor carried on. "We had to save this person and we did everything," Dr Valentin Filatov, head of the cardio surgery unit, said in an interview with state television.

The Amur region branch of the emergencies ministry said electricity to the operating theatre was provided with a separate cable, while firefighters ensured smoke did not spread to the room.

After the operation, the patient was evacuated from the burning building to another hospital, the ministry added.

Medic Antonina Smolina said that "there was no panic" among the hospital staff.

The fire, likely caused by an electrical problem, was brought under control without any casualties.

The local authorities promised to award the doctors who continued with the operation and the firefighters who extinguished the blaze.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on April 04, 2021, with the headline Russian doctors carry out open heart surgery as firemen fight hospital blaze. Subscribe