Senior Ukrainian officials said military doctors have successfully accomplished a rare and dangerous procedure of extracting an unexploded grenade from a soldier's chest, Live Science reported.
On January 9, Hanna Maliar, Ukraine's deputy defense minister, shared an X-ray photograph of an explosive bomb trapped within the chest of a Ukrainian soldier on Facebook. She wrote in the option that a VOG grenade did not break inside the soldier's body and had to be carefully removed.
Removing Unexploded Grenade Under the Soldier's Heart
As per Maliar, the procedure was carried out by Andrii Verba who is one of the most skilled surgeons in Ukraine's armed forces, and was aided by two sappers, or combat engineers to safeguard medical personnel and ensure the operation was carried out safely.
She also included in her post what appears to be the patient's X-ray, and a photo of Verba clutching the grenade after it has been extracted. BBC News reports that VOG grenades are around 1.6 inches (4 cm) long and may be thrown from grenade launchers up to 0.2 miles (400 meters) away from a target.
Maliar also stated that no electrocoagulation was used during the procedure, which is a standard way of controlling bleeding that works by applying an electric current to burn the margins of blood vessels, cauterizing a cut or incision. It was because doctors were concerned that the electric current might set off the explosives in this scenario.
Anton Gerashchenko, Ukraine's ministerial assistant for internal affairs, said that the unexploded section of the grenade was removed under the heart and fortunately did not explode, although it remains explosive.
The patient was about 28 years old and is currently undergoing rehabilitation and recovery. Gerashchenko noted that such a rare and dangerous procedure has never been practiced by their military doctors before.
Extraordinary Procedure Used in Operating Soldiers in the Past
Although it might be the first time such a rare and dangerous procedure was conducted during the Russia-Ukraine war, Live Science reported that it was not the first ever to be conducted in history.
A 1999 research published in the journal Military Medicine examined US military records and discovered 36 examples of unexploded ordnance being removed from patients between World War II and the report's publication. Despite the fact that four patients died as a result of their injuries before surgery could be done, the other 32 surgeries were successful.
A similar case also in 2006 happened as a team of US military doctors in Afghanistan removed an unexploded grenade from Pvt. Channing Moss' abdomen. Also, doctors successfully removed potentially explosive ammunition from a 23-year-old pregnant woman in Afghanistan in 2014.
Moreover, despite the fact that the object was a non-explosive metal bullet, surgeons took measures identical to those taken by Ukrainian doctors in the latest instance, such as not using an electrocautery instrument, as detailed in a 2016 case report. The Joint Trauma System of the United States Department of Defense even has official guidance on how to manage such occurrences.
Nonetheless, the successful Ukrainian surgery is a scenario in which everything went as planned in a potentially lethal situation. Gerashchenko said that it was an example to be included in medical textbooks.
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