Heart of Steel

russian soldiers have been shelling Zaporizhzhia with S-300 missiles for many months. These missiles have low accuracy and often hit residential buildings. That's what happened in this story; residents were not injured, but the stress caused a 32 weeks pregnant woman to go into premature labor. A girl was born in the hospital with a weight of 1600 grams.  

“We placed the newborn in an incubator right away. We created an intrauterine environment: temperature, humidity. The newborn stayed there for two weeks. That's how we nursed her back to health!’ says Andrii Lobanov, an anesthesiologist at the Zaporizhzhia Oblast Perinatal Center.

A man serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine was granted a short-term leave to visit his wife and his newborn daughter. The baby was born at 25 weeks and weighed only 700 grams. The meeting was tender, warm, and full of love. A handsome young man in a military uniform stood by the incubator with a baby inside. After meeting her dad, the baby started to grow rapidly and gain weight. After 22 weeks, he grew up and is now waiting for his dad at home.

The fraternal twins Mykyta and Sofia spent their first 7 months in the neonatal unit of the Mykolaiv Regional Children's Clinical Hospital. These babies weighed only 1280 and 1340 grams respectively.  They were nursed in the intensive care unit for 4 months, then discharged as healthy and beautiful babies, having gained 2.5 kg. The incubator played a decisive role in their salvation.