Resurgence of WWI-Era “gas Gangrene” Threatens Ukrainian Soldiers Due to Drone-Hindered evacuations
Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine – Russian drone attacks are severely hampering medical evacuations in Ukraine, leading to a dangerous rise in cases of gas gangrene – a rare and often fatal infectious disease not widely seen since World War I, according to reports from Ukrainian medics and a volunteer paramedic working near teh front lines.
The Telegraph newspaper reports that the delays in getting wounded soldiers to proper medical facilities are creating conditions ripe for the progress of this tissue-destroying infection, typically caused by bacteria entering deep wounds. Gas gangrene was a notable killer of wounded soldiers during the First World War, before the advent of widespread antibiotic use.
A foreign volunteer medic in the Zaporizhzhia region described the situation as unprecedented. “Such delays in evacuation have never occurred in the last 50 years – probably not as the Second World War, perhaps even longer. And we are seeing clinical pictures that we have never seen before,” the medic told the Telegraph.
The paramedic detailed instances of injured soldiers being kept alive “as best as possible” underground for weeks due to the inability to transport them quickly to hospitals. Even with treatment in a clinical setting, recovery from gas gangrene is not guaranteed, and without intervention, the risk of fatality is nearly 100 percent, according to a lecturer at King’s College London cited in the report.
While the risk of death from infection was reduced during World War II with the introduction of antibiotics, the Telegraph reports that antibiotic resistance is now complicating treatment efforts. Furthermore, the makeshift medical facilities established in cellars and bunkers lack the necessary sterile conditions and resources to effectively combat the infection. These facilities are currently focused on “damage control operations” – addressing immediate, life-threatening injuries within the first 24 to 48 hours.
“We’re seeing more and more people with injuries that should be survivable – for example amputations or cases were someone just needs a blood transfusion - dying on the spot,” the paramedic lamented. “so many of them can’t be evacuated in time and just don’t make it.”
The resurgence of this historically devastating illness underscores the critical impact of Russia’s drone warfare on the ability to provide timely medical care to Ukrainian soldiers.
source: ntv.de, The Telegraph
