- WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
- Surgeon Borys Todurov extracted a 7.62 mm caliber bullet at the Kiev Heart Institute
A Ukrainian soldier is alive for Christmas after miraculously surviving a Russian bullet lodged in his heart.
Prominent Ukrainian heart surgeon Borys Todurov showed in a graphic video how he extracted the 7.62mm caliber bullet in his operating room in Kiev.
'Incredible luck; almost no one survives such heart wounds,” he said.
Famed surgeon Todurov was assisted by a full medical team as he used tweezers to pull the bullet from the beating heart.
Five days after the operation, the patient – who has not yet been identified – was walking in his ward, he said.
Leading Ukrainian heart surgeon Borys Todurov helped a Ukrainian soldier survive after leading a team that removed a bullet from his heart
Todurov was assisted by a full medical team from the Kyiv Heart Institute
The experienced surgeon used tweezers to pull out the bullet
Pictured: Tweezers were used to extract the 7.62mm caliber bullet
While operating at the Kyiv Heart Institute, the surgeon said the bullet “protruded straight out of the heart chamber…
“Yes, right in the wall of the ventricle.”
It was a 7.62mm automatic rifle round – 'maybe.' [from] a machine gun – big enough.
'It was stuck in the wall of the ventricle. We got it out without any blood loss. Not everyone is so lucky.
“So… such a bullet entered the heart and did not cause sudden death.”
Earlier in the war, 58-year-old Todurov, a medical professor and director of the Heart Institute of Ukraine's Health Ministry, denounced Vladimir Putin for forcing doctors to perform emergency heart surgery on children by torchlight.
He sarcastically told the Russians to “rejoice” at the chaos they are causing by bombing Kiev's electricity supply.
He performed several operations on soldiers during the war.
Kiev-born Todurov performed his first heart operation at the age of 22.
In 2001, he performed the first human heart transplant in Ukraine.
In 2016, he performed the first mechanical heart implant surgery in Ukraine.
Kiev-born Todurov performed his first heart surgery at the age of 22 and performed the first human heart transplant in Ukraine
It comes amid declining morale among Zelenskiy's troops as the war enters its second harsh winter. In the photo: a tank crew in Christmas outfit carries out a combat mission
Another video released in April showed footage of a similar operation in which a bullet was removed from the heart of a Ukrainian soldier.
Doctors at Feofaniya Hospital in Kyiv made incisions before removing the metal ball.
It comes amid declining morale among Zelensky's troops, as snow and ice cover the ground as the war drags on into its second winter.
Meanwhile, the rat bite is spreading around Putin's front line, with troops reporting symptoms of vomiting and bleeding eyes on the northeastern Kupjansk front near the border with Russia.