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The war has brought challenges to Ukrainian hospitals that no medical university in the world prepares students for. When explosions ring out outside the window and the lights suddenly go out in the operating room, doctors have to fight to save their patients\u2019 lives under extreme conditions.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Energy Act for Ukraine Charitable Foundation spoke with Pavlo Kistruga, a cardiac surgeon at the Regional Clinical Cardiology Center of the Kirovohrad Regional Council, who has endured the most severe blackouts and continues to fight for everyheart. The Energy Act for Ukraine Charitable Foundation equipped the facility with a hybrid solar power station. Since its installation, more than 130 surgeries have been successfully performed here. Read ourarticle about facing fear without panic, unique surgeries in semi-darkness, and a newfound sense of confidence thanks to solar energy.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0 Pavlo, you started working at this hospital in 2022, just before what turned out to be the harshest winter in the country\u2019s history. What emotions and challenges did you face back then?<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 Before the full-scale invasion began, I was working at a clinic in Odesa. The move, an operating room that was completely new to me\u2014one I was just starting to get used to\u2014was stressful enough on its own. But with the onset of massive shelling and blackouts, everything changed.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The first thing you keenly feel when the air raid siren sounds is the full realization that neither you nor the patient has anywhere to go. Modern TV shows make it seem as if moving an operating room to a shelter is the easiest thing in the world. But in reality, it\u2019s impossible to move all that complex equipment underground.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Our operating room is located on the top, fifth floor of the hospital. You just stand there, and the only thing on your mind is, \u201cI just hope everything turns out okay.\u201d When we were all on Telegram channels reading warnings that another strike was coming, we\u2019d run through the worst-case scenarios in our heads\u2014in theory. But when you actually experience it in real life\u2014it\u2019s a whole different story.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0 Do you remember that first major blackout that caught you at work?<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0 That was at the start of the full-scale war. There was an enemy strike that night. The whole building shook, the glass in the windows rattled, and at that very moment, everything went dark. Everything shut down completely. After those strikes, half the city was without power for about three or four days.\u00a0 But the scariest part happened right at the moment of the strike, because we were operating in the operating room during the attack.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0 Performing surgery at the moment of an explosion, when the lights go out, sounds like the plot of a horror movie. What happened in the operating room during those first few minutes?<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0 High-tech devices and the anesthesia machine have built-in backup batteries; they kept us going for the first few minutes while the generator kicked in. It took about a minute, though we were prepared to wait even longer. The generator supplied power to the operating room lamp, but it didn\u2019t happen right away.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0 Were you afraid?\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t say we weren\u2019t worried. But there was no panic at all; the stress simply triggered a surge of adrenaline, and everyone knew exactly what to do. I always have a flashlight strapped to my forehead during every surgery, and that\u2019s what saved the day. Some of my colleagues, wanting to help, immediately started using their phones to illuminate the surgical field. Light was our most precious resource at that moment.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0 I suppose this surgery was the most difficult one of your life, wasn\u2019t it? Who exactly were you saving under such extreme conditions?<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0 It was a man in his 60s with ischemic heart disease. The situation turned out to be extremely unusual, because due to the peculiarities of his anatomy, we couldn\u2019t touch the body\u2019s main blood vessel\u2014the aorta\u2014at all. Any careless touch could have been fatal.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So we used a technique that was new to our hospital and very complex\u2014creating a bypass to restore blood flow, but doing so directly on the heart while it was still beating. We took other blood vessels from the patient and connected them together, like a continuous lifeline. Blood was supposed to flow from one vessel, smoothly transition to the second, then to the third, bypassing all the blocked areas.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The surgery lasted nearly four hours. When I realized that our chain was working and the blood was flowing, I was finally able to breathe a deep sigh of relief.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 How did the patient get through the night? After all, there was a total blackout all around us.<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0 That was a challenge in itself. Our intensive care unit is on the first floor, and the operating suite is on the fifth. The elevators powered by the generator weren\u2019t working yet. So we had to leave the patient on the operating table overnight, with staff taking turns staying by his side.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n These tables are very narrow; they\u2019re not designed for prolonged rest at all. It was uncomfortable for him, but in the morning, when the city\u2019s power was restored and we moved him down to the ICU, he said it was better that way than any other. After the surgery, the patient returned to his normal life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 How did patients\u2019 relatives react to the fact that the hospital could lose power at a critical moment? Was there any panic?\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 People understood the situation, and the successful surgeries overshadowed all the horror. But for us, these challenges clearly confirmed that hospitals need complete autonomy. After all, medicine during a blackout isn\u2019t just about a surgeon with a flashlight in the operating room. It also involves the work of the intensive care unit, where infusion pumps must administer medication to patients every second, and their internal batteries aren\u2019t designed to last through prolonged power outages. It also concerns the safety of junior staff caring for patients in the hallways. The issue of uninterrupted power supply has become a matter of survival for us\u2014one that should not depend on the availability of fuel for a generator or the state of the city\u2019s power grid.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 You mentioned systemic solutions and survival. Why can\u2019t conventional diesel generators\u2014which still save businesses and homes\u2014serve as a fully-fledged foundation for your cardiac center\u2019s energy independence?<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 Generators are a good temporary backup, but they have critical drawbacks for medical use. First, there are human and technical factors: a generator requires fuel and constant maintenance, and it might simply fail to start on the first try. Second\u2014and this is the most important aspect of our work\u2014switching to the generator takes time. That very minute I mentioned\u2014in the context of cardiac surgery, where every second counts\u2014can cost a life. Any power surge or delay in powering delicate equipment poses a colossal risk. A hospital\u2019s true energy independence must be seamless. The lights must not go out even for a moment.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 So the experience of the first blackouts forced you to seek fundamentally new approaches to patient safety?<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 Absolutely. The events at the start of the war made it clear that we could no longer react on a case-by-case basis. We needed an autonomous power source that operates continuously, automatically, and is capable of sustaining the entire center\u2019s vital functions without interruption. Critical situations like those\u2014when we stood in semi-darkness, illuminating the surgical field with cell phones, or when a patient was forced to spend the night on a narrow table because the elevators were out\u2014simply must never happen again. The cost is too high. And it was solar energy that provided the answer to this challenge.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 Recognizing this need, The Energy Act for Ukraine Charitable Foundation installed a hybrid solar power station at your cardiac center. Tell us, how exactly has this impacted the facility\u2019s dailyoperations? <\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 For our cardiac center, this project has been a real boost. The 50 kW solar power plant, together with energy storage systems capable of storing 96 kWh, now fully covers our critical needs. It powers high-tech equipment: syringe pumps in the intensive care unit, ventilators, patient monitoring systems, and, of course, the operating rooms. Moreover, the station ensures the autonomous operation of the medical elevators\u2014the very ones whose breakdown once forced us to leave a patient on the fifth floor overnight. The issue with small equipment and the safety of staff movement in the hallways has now also been completely resolved.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 So can we say with confidence that patients are now safe from unexpected power outages in the operating rooms?\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 That\u2019s now technically impossible. Such extreme scenarios involving cell phones and flashlights are a thing of the past\u2014a lesson we\u2019ve learned, but one that won\u2019t happen again.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 New challenges lie ahead, including possible winters with power outages. Have your personal feelings changed when you enter the operating room now, knowing about this autonomous backup system on the roof?<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 There\u2019s a clear understanding now that everything is under control. It\u2019s a sense of reassurance, because you know the hospital will have power no matter what\u2014no matter what the enemy plans or does from the outside. The fact that this backup exists\u2014that it\u2019s real and working\u2014provides psychological protection for the entire medical staff. We know that the solar panels on the roof accumulate energy every day, which, in the event of an emergency power outage, will instantly sustain our patients\u2019 lives.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The enemy may cut off power to entire cities, but it is no longer able to turn off the lights in the operating rooms, where we fight to save lives, or disrupt the work of the people who provide care for our patients every minute.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The war has brought challenges to Ukrainian hospitals that no medical university in the world prepares students for. When explosions ring out outside the window and the lights suddenly go out in the operating room, doctors have to fight to save their patients\u2019 lives under extreme conditions.\u00a0 The Energy Act for Ukraine Charitable Foundation spoke […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4489,"featured_media":757071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[24,23],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/eba.com.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_7787-1024x683.jpg\")
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