Mom, I’ve got no leg. 19-year-old student Anastasia was injured during a rocket attack in Kramatorsk

Svoi talked to Anastasia through a social network. During the conversation, our compatriot spoke about her life before the tragic day, about what happened at the station, and how she ended up in the German city of Essen.

The Meeting with the Driver Was to Be in a Different Place

Anastasia is a student of the National Pedagogical Dragomanov University in Kyiv, “Social Work and Pedagogy” specialty. The girl calls herself an artistic person. For more than 13 years she was engaged in the exemplary dance theater “Nadezhda.” She also performed in the Druzhkivka theater “Kaleydoskop.”

“While at school, I participated in many competitions, including “Leader of the Year.” I like it, I get high from it. When I entered the university, the coronavirus pandemic started, and I mostly studied online. At home, I began to study psychology in depth.

The girl says that she was not going to leave Druzhkivka after the full-scale invasion of Russia till the last moment. However, her friends began to persuade her and promised to help her with housing in Dnipro.

“My relatives didn’t want to leave themselves, but to support me morally and emotionally, they let me go. I quickly gathered the necessary things into my backpack and suitcase. I got from Druzhkivka to Kramatorsk by train. I wasn’t going to evacuate by train further. I found a driver on BlaBlaCar and agreed that he would pick me up from the station and take me to Dnipro, although initially he was to leave from a different place, and I practically don’t know Kramatorsk.”

In the train, Anastasia met the girls she knew at school. As it turned out later, one of them died as a result of a missile strike, and another covered her child with herself, miraculously survived, but was seriously injured.

I was afraid that my leg would tear off

Anastasia recalls she got off the train and started to look for a place to wait for the driver. He was supposed to arrive at 1 p.m. There were a lot of people at the station, about 3,000, waiting for evacuation trains.

“I sat down on a bench in the street. There was a woman near me who offered to look after my bags. I went to buy some coffee. I came back and made a video for my friends who were worried about me, told them I was there, in a good mood, sitting and drinking coffee while waiting for the driver. In about 30 minutes a rocket with a cluster warhead arrived at the station. I immediately ran away from the bench and fell to the ground. It so happened that one leg covered the other, the right one wasn’t injured at all, but in the left one I immediately felt a strong pain. I remember my phone lying nearby, covered in blood. And it constantly rang, I had numerous messages in different messengers. And I couldn't reach it [the phone]."

The girl shouted “Help!” several times, but no one paid attention, everyone ran in panic. Some people were screaming, others were crying.

“I was lying in a huge pool of blood. I’m very afraid of blood, so I tried not to look at my leg. With difficulty, I managed to reach for the phone and hid it under my jacket. Five minutes later, rescuers came running to me with a stretcher. I was afraid that they would put me on a stretcher and my leg would tear off. The rescuers heavily bandaged the leg with a tourniquet to minimize blood loss. Then they brought me into the station building, and there were a lot of people, and they all were looking at me. The ambulance came and put me into the car. On the way to the Kramatorsk hospital, the phone was still ringing. With great effort, I took it into my hands. I was exhausted at that moment, it seemed that the phone weighed 10 kg. My sister’s husband called and I told him that I was alive and that I was being taken to the hospital, but didn’t have time to specify which one. I didn't have the energy for more."

Pray for your daughter to live

At the hospital, Anastasia was moved on a gurney and left in the preoperative room. The girl recalls that she was patiently waiting at first. There were many injured but a lack of medical personnel for everyone. Then she asked the doctors to pay attention to her. Anastasia was getting worse and understood that she would soon begin to lose consciousness. In a short while, she was taken for an operation.

They took a vein from the right leg and tried to save the left one. Anastasia’s mother arrived when the operation was already underway. When she asked if her daughter would walk, the doctors replied: “Pray for her to survive. Your daughter has lost a lot of blood.” They said that Anastasia had to undergo a transfusion several times, and if she survived, she would be sent to the Mechnikov hospital in Dnipro.

“The operation was finished at 4 p.m., and at 6 p.m. I fell into a coma. I was in a coma until midnight. All my relatives, friends and acquaintances prayed that I would survive. When I regained consciousness, I asked the nurse for my phone to call my mom. She didn't believe it was me calling, because my voice differed. Mom asked five times: “Nastya, is that you?”

On the next day, April 9, the girl was sent to Dnipro. There were about 25 ambulances going there. Apart from Anastasia, three other women with various injuries were in the car, sitting next to her.

“They took us to Pavlograd. Those with lighter injuries were left in the local hospital. When I was taken to the hospital, the doctor examined me and said that they couldn’t help there, I had to be taken to Dnipro.”

I believed doctors would save my leg till the end

In the Mechnikov hospital, the girl underwent another operation. There were seven of them in total, the last one already in Germany.

“I was not fully aware of the whole situation, I begged the doctors to save my leg. They said they would try to do their best. After the first operation in this hospital, the doctor examined the leg and said that the injury was serious but there was a chance to save the leg. I was moved to the ward and slept for a while. By evening, a male nurse noticed that I was getting worse. On the night of April 9–10, another operation was carried out. When I regained consciousness after anesthesia, I no longer had a leg. Honestly, I went to the operation with good thoughts, but somehow I realized that amputation was possible. But I believed that the leg would be saved till the end. In the morning, my mom came to Dnipro. The whole family knew that I had no leg, but they didn’t tell my mom. And I didn’t know that. I called her and said: "Mom, I’ve got no leg already." Mom started to reassure me that everything would be fine, that, most importantly, I was alive."

Nastya with a nurse in the Mechnikov hospital

Anastasia says she was supported morally in the hospital. Strangers brought her goodies, flowers, and gifts. Three days later, she was moved from the operating room to a regular ward. Every day, friends came to visit the girl, and her mother was with her from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.

Since May, Anastasia has stayed in Essen with her mother. They got to this German city thanks to family friends.

“They wanted to help me. They told my story to the Germans, and a married couple responded. Mira and Martin did something incredible: they arranged for an ambulance with staff and volunteers to come for me from Germany to Lviv and take me to the Essen clinic. They placed me in an individual ward and took out medical insurance, which should cover all treatment costs. Another operation was made at the hospital. And then I worked with physiotherapists. I move around in a wheelchair or walk with crutches. You know, I'm already doing pretty well."

At the end of May, Anastasia was discharged. Now she lives in a rented apartment with her mother. She says she has months of rehabilitation ahead. And then she will get a prosthesis. The doctor said that the first prosthesis will have a special bandage to keep it on the pelvis.

“I'm still trying to accept what has happened. It made me cry many times. Recently, I’ve turned 19. I used to be an active, moving, dancing person, and now I’ve got no leg. It’s hard to accept.”

If you want to help Anastasia, card for

donations: 5168757430485807 (Privatbank).