Doctors Remove Live Grenade From Soldier
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian doctors have operated to remove a
live grenade from the leg of a soldier wounded in Chechnya, the
armed forces newspaper reported Wednesday.
Doctors and nurses performed the surgery clad in body armor
and helmets, and draped flak jackets over the patient, who was
hit by a grenade-launcher round in a battle near the southern
Chechen town of Urus Martan.
The grenade did not explode, but was trapped, still live, in
his right leg near the knee, according to accounts in the
military's official newspaper, Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star).
``Military doctors had to de-mine Junior Sergeant Andrian
Chebodayev,'' the paper said.
The operation was carried out in an open field rather than
inside a hospital, so that if the grenade blew up it would be
less dangerous for the medical staff.
``We worked...in silence, understanding each other
perfectly,'' surgeon Yuri Sikorsky told the newspaper.
``The de-mining experts warned us the grenade still had one
live capsule, which could explode. Physically, the work was not
difficult, but the moral responsibility was 100 times greater.
We really wanted to save the guy.''
The surgeons removed the grenade and put it in a metal box
for de-mining experts to defuse, the paper said. |
