The first emergency response team to reach Artsakh
saved 100 critically injured in a few days
31-year-old Vazgen Asatryan has been working at the emergency medical station for three years. In the days following the attack on September 19, 2023, he traveled to Artsakh with a group of doctors from Armenia.
23 vehicles had to evacuate the critically ill and injured patients. Vazgen, along with his two colleagues in the 51st Brigade, were the first to arrive in Stepanakert–on September 22.
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The evacuation of critically ill and injured patients was organized in the Republican Hospital of Stepanakert, with each car taking 4-5 people.
Especially after the deadly explosion at the fuel depot, there were patients in critical condition.
It was obvious right upon entering the hospital; the staff worked while malnourished, exhausted, and stressed.
Read the translation: Vazgen Asatryan recounts
The first time we went there, the most distressing scene was in the yard of Stepanakert hospital, where mothers were trying to somehow warm up water, dissolve a bit of sugar in it, and give it to their 2-3-year-old children to drink. It was the toughest scene, seeing them do that. We got out of the car, wondering what they were mixing for so long. We approached, asked, and they said that for a long time already, this is what the children have been drinking, how they have been fed.
Under normal circumstances, an ambulance would reach the Hakari Bridge from Stepanakert in 40 minutes.
During those days, with the quickest possible ride, they took the patients to Goris in around 5 hours.
- Vazgen took stones from the Stepanakert hospital yard, put them into medical gloves, and brought them back to Yerevan.To this day, Vazgen keeps his medical uniform and the photographs in his phone that he took during the journey.
There was this injured boy who Vazgen brought to the Erebuni Hospital from Stepanakert.
The unconscious young man was in critical condition.
Their meeting took place at Arthur’s home, six months later. The boy had undergone difficult surgeries and spent a long time in rehabilitation.
There are scars on his face. Vazgen knows them by heart and examines them by touch.
The doctor recalls–they had to either return empty-handed or take the boy, who was given no hope of survival.
After getting him to the hospital in Yerevan, the boy’s aunt was the one to keep in touch with the doctor.
Read the translation: Vazgen Asatryan recounts
After that, I was at the Erebuni Medical Center every day, and tried getting information about Arthur. But I did not meet with his relatives, the relatives hadn’t seen me, the boy hadn’t seen me; he was unconscious for a long time. At one point, Arthur was in a very critical condition: the injury to his leg had caused poisoning. Then they amputated the leg. The doctors temporarily fixed the right leg with a metal structure, as further surgeries were needed later. After the leg amputation, the source of intoxication seemed to have disappeared, his fever started to drop, his consciousness slowly began to clear, and he started to eat. I called every day, talked to his aunt, but I didn’t say that I had information about him. I didn’t say anything of what the reanimatologists had told me, so as not to confuse them, because they saw the injured, but I didn’t. I was just gathering information for myself. Then, you could say, he was discharged with improvement. This is the boy who was given no hope for any positive dynamics. Later he was discharged and went home, and I deleted his aunt’s number so I wouldn’t call again.
Arthur got injured on September 19 on the heights of his native village, Avdur.
He doesn’t remember how it happened. His brother, Arayik, pulled him out of the trench.
With great difficulty, they took Arthur to the hospital in Stepanakert from Martuni.
The doctors couldn’t save his right leg, and his left leg has already been operated on for the 9th time. He came out of a coma on September 29 and was discharged from the hospital two months later.
After regaining consciousness, Arthur said he wished to return to his native village. His mother, Gayane, replied tearfully; that was impossible.
It is difficult for Gayane to see Arthur in a wheelchair.
Her husband recently passed away, and in 2020, Arthur and Arayik’s older brother, Arman, was killed near Talish.
In a two-room apartment, Arthur lives with his mother, brother Arayik, sister Anush, and her daughter.
The family tried to justify her uncle’s long absence to Adriana. They told her that Arthur was protecting the village.
The doctor says that he spoke several times with the relatives of the patients he took back, making sure they regained consciousness; then he crossed their names off in his notebook.
At the moment of farewell, Vazgen gives his phone number to Arthur.
In his notebook, the doctor registered the hours and days of duty, data about the trips he took to Stepanakert. Each 70-kilometer journey lasted at least 5 hours.
The 51st Brigade took the forced displacement journey several times and transported 100 patients.
Authors: Shushan Papazyan, Astghik Hovhannesov
