Ukraine’s Invisible Lifeline: A Pocket Magnet That’s Saving Soldiers’ Lives | World News
KYIV: Serhii Melnyk pulls a piece of blood stained from his pocket, wrapped loosely on worn paper. It is rusted on the edges, dull and rough. He holds it to the light. “This kidney sliced my kidney. He almost reached my lungs. He approached the heart,” he says.
The piece tears his body while fighting in East Ukraine. It came from a Russian drone explosion, one of the most popular in the war zone.
At first Serhii did not notice. He continued to fight and thought that the tightness on his chest was a vial jacket. He didn’t breathe later. The surgeons performed an operation on him and took out it.
Drone Warfare changed everything. The bombs are no longer the only threat. Small pieces that kill slowly or suddenly – flying like hot metal, rough and knife -.
Military doctors in Ukraine say that these parts are now behind 80% of the war area injuries. If Serhii had not been treated quickly, he wouldn’t have done it. “It was like a knife. They told me I was lucky, or he says.
But the chance was helpful. It came in the form of a magnetic pencil -sized device. This is called a magnetic extract.
A small vehicle, a silent revolution
Cardiac Surgeon Serhii Maksymenko protects the images of this surgery. In the video, it pulls a magnet metal piece from a heart that still explodes. There is no big cut. No messy.
“I made a small incision. Just enough for the magnet to get in and get it, or he says.
The team carried out 70 operations in just a year. The device has changed everything from Battlefield trauma to survival rates. Previously, the removal of parts meant complex surgeries – larger wounds, more blood loss and higher risk.
But the soldiers had no time. Field doctors had no resources. War needed faster solutions. That’s when an old lawyer came in.
The man behind the magnet
Oleh Baikov voluntarily spent for years for the Ukrainian army. He wasn’t a doctor, but he listened. The facade medical officers told him what they need – something fast, sensitive and portable. Find and lift the deadly pieces placed in the soldiers.
He worked with engineers, spoke to field doctors and tested prototypes. Together they built the magnetic extractor. The idea was not new. The magnets were used in surgeries until the Crimean War. However, this version was different – smaller, sharper and smarter.
They made flexible models for abdominal injuries. For the bones, they strengthened the tool with stronger alloys. They prepared micro-vouchers for narrow wounds.
Oleh carries one next to him. It looks like a pen. But a hammer can lift. Doctors are now using it like a wand, slowly sweeping on the wounds. When a piece sticks, they make a small cut. He went out in seconds.
Former military surgeon. David nott even says. “Wars are forcing people to invent things that peace never demand, or he says.
Needle on the battlefield
Speed is important in war and simplicity is also important. Parts are almost invisible with the naked eye. Looking for them in a wounded soldier is like chasing a shadow.
“Finding them is like looking for a needle in the haystack. Usually, treatment delays for everyone, or he says.
When the search contains large incisions, blood loss increases and the risk of infection increases. “This vehicle makes it faster, cleaner and safer, or he adds.
Throughout Ukraine, it is now standard in the facade medical kits. Doctors like Andrii Elban work under Shellfire, in shelters, temporary clinics and sometimes without anesthesia. For teams like him, he took 3,000 of these subtractions.
“My job stops bleeding, closing the wounds and pulling the soldiers back to life,” he says.
No article, only results
The device has not been approved by the health authorities of Ukraine. He didn’t go through official trials. He couldn’t. Bureaucracy awaits in war. Soldiers cannot do. The Ministry of Health confesses that it does not clean the extraction for regular use. However, the rules are bent in the emergency zones. In accordance with martial law, the battlefield decides what is important.
Oleh knows the risk.
“If this is a crime,” he laughs, “I will take the crime. I put me in jail, but he is thrown into jail to doctors. They save lives with him every day.”
Dr Nott accepts, “Certificates can wait, but cannot survive,” he accepts.
He believes that the vehicle can work in other war zones such as Gaza or Sudan. “In the war, you do what keeps people alive. This is that, or he says.
A soldier is coming home
In Lviv, Serhii’s wife Yuliia holds the metal piece in hand. He’s filling his eyes. “This thing almost killed him. And now he’s sitting on our shelf, he whispering.
Stops. Orum I don’t know who made that magnet. But I thank them with everything I have. My husband came back because of them. ”
Sometimes miracles don’t wear a cloak. They hide in the hands of a surgeon or rest in a soldier’s shirt pocket – cold, sharp, rusty and quietly eaten.
