We Often Count The Soldiers Who Died In The Conflict In Ukraine, But Do You Know How Many Patients Died As A Result Of Not Being Treated?

Illustration of an underground station in Ukraine (Photo by Tobias Reich on Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The number of fatalities due to missile attacks or the whistling of bullets in the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to grow. But has there ever been a definite number of patients who were forced to breathe their last due to not receiving treatment?

War is never profitable. You don't even need higher education to know that.

Over the past five days of the Russian invasion, the basement of a Ukrainian children's hospital has become a bomb shelter for the country's cancer patients.

Thin mattresses, pillows, and blankets covered the floor of the underground passage as explosions and gunfire rang out above. Parents speak quietly to reassure their sick children, encourage them to eat or sleep.

Doctors and nurses are trying to provide the limited care they can, even as supplies of necessary medicines, as well as food and water are running low.

"These children are suffering more because they have to stay alive to fight cancer - and this fight can't wait," said Dr. Lesia Lysytsia from Okhmatdyt's basement as quoted by NBC News, Tuesday 1 March.

When Dr. Lesia Lysytsia was talking, an aerial siren sounded warning of a bomb threat.

Their condition can worsen at any time as access to chemotherapy becomes increasingly difficult. It's not even possible that their lives would have been lost not by bullets or missiles.

"We will count how many people or soldiers died in the attack, but we will never count how many patients were not diagnosed with a disease in time, how many patients died because they were not treated," he said.

To be able to evacuate them is easy. They don't know how long the journey will take, what medical supplies will be needed and what dangers they may face on the road.

"Patients and their parents ask me if it's safe, and I say, 'I don't know,'" says Lysytsia.

"I don't even know if it's safe to go outside. It's possible they go near the hospital and they'll be attacked."