"There was an alarm, so I went out on the way to the shelter, and then a missile hit directly at my house in Chernikov," says Katrina Chikhova, 30, from her bed in the busy corridor of the hospital in Chisinau.
"I do not remember how I was injured. I lost consciousness, and when I woke up I had electrical wires on me."
Wounded by shrapnel and with a complex fracture in her leg, Katrina lay on the street for long hours behind a concrete fence, until she was evacuated to a hospital.
A week and a half ago she underwent surgery in a Ukrainian hospital, but her treatment was partial.
Her brother David, who speaks fluent Hebrew, managed to organize a complex rescue from Ukraine and she arrived by ambulance at the Chabad house in Kishinev.
"We met her at two in the morning on Saturday night," says Dr. Idit Tessler-Gabay, an ENT doctor in Sheba and one of the organizers of the "For Their Sake" delegation of medical aid to war refugees. "She was pale and in pain." Dr. Oz Franco, 48 , An orthopedic specialist at Clalit Health Fund and the director of the delegation, adds: "I examined her leg and realized that she must be taken to the hospital."
Dr. Idit Tessler-Gabay at the Moldova Refugee Center, Photo: Yossi Zeliger
The doctor who insists on checking
In the morning, the pair of doctors went out to check again how Katrina was doing.
At the entrance to the hospital, weeping Ira, the mother of the injured, is waiting.
The doctors wrap her in hugs and soothing words.
Katrina's bed is located at the end of the narrow corridor laden with patients.
"We will not leave you until you reach a hospital in the country," the doctors promise for the painfully injured one.
"You are already waiting for you at Ichilov Hospital.
Now you just have to find a flight to Israel. "Dr. Franco goes through the X-rays of the injured leg and states that he needs to be operated on again, because the first operation was not performed properly.
"We have met hundreds of refugees in recent days, and most of them say 'everything is fine', but when we check properly and pay proper attention to them, things are revealed."
Say goodbye to Katrina - and go out with mother Ira.
The doctor notices her lameness.
"It's nothing," mutters the mother, who is focused on caring for her injured daughter.
The doctor insists on checking, and discovers a sprain or small fracture.
"We've met hundreds of refugees in the last few days. Most of them say 'everything is fine,' but when we check properly and pay proper attention to them, things are revealed," says Dr. Franco.
She also said, "Everything is fine."
Running around at night
On weekdays, "For Their Sake" is an organization of doctors who treat Holocaust survivors voluntarily.
Now they have joined forces to deal with the refugees of the war, including Holocaust survivors.
The delegation that landed in Moldova on Friday included about 40 medical staff members, all of whom came on a full-time basis, most of them at the expense of their vacation days from work in the country.
The team consists of 36 doctors from different disciplines, a nursing staff, a psychologist, a social worker and medical clowns.
The plane was also loaded with a lot of medical equipment and humanitarian aid.
Since then, they have been running, including late at night, between the city's hospitals and the Jewish and general refugee concentrations in the city.
Jewish refugees from Ukraine make their way to Israel, last week, Photo: AFP
The Friendship Foundation has joined
They were looking for a way to urgently fly Katrina to Israel, and members of the Friendship Foundation joined the mission.
"Starting this week, we have immigrant flights to Israel from Chisinau on a daily basis with about a thousand immigrants a week," says Ayelet Shilo Tamir, director of the Friendship Foundation, who is in Chisinau. "Immediately, and tomorrow it will be added to our flight and receive medical treatment in Israel."
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us