My name is Sergeeva Galina Anatolievna.
Author's spelling and punctuation
I am a biologist by my first education, a doctor of veterinary medicine by my second, a candidate of veterinary sciences. My professional experience is more than 30 years.
I was born in 1963 in Mariupol, Donetsk region. It is Ukraine. I have lived and worked in my hometown all my life. I have wanted to be a veterinarian since I was seven years old. And she went to this goal for a long time and stubbornly. While still a schoolgirl, from the age of 14, I went weekly to Donetsk University, where I studied at the School of Young Biology. Then, after graduating from school, she entered this university and graduated with a degree in biology and physiology. Then she continued her education at the Kharkiv Zooveterinary Institute, received the specialty of a doctor of veterinary medicine and then, as an applicant for a scientific degree, she defended her thesis and received the title of candidate of veterinary sciences.
All this time I was engaged in veterinary practice in parallel.
She helped small animals, tried to help them as much as possible. The difficulty was that veterinary medicine for small animals simply did not exist, there was not even such a specialization. As there was no literature, there were no master classes yet, no congresses and conferences were held on the territory of the post-Soviet space, it was impossible to buy even the simplest surgical instrument. Everything was in short supply - from drugs and tools to information. However, the great desire to work outweighed the lack of medicines, equipment, material resources and professional literature. I started my private veterinary practice. At first, she went on calls for quite a long time, and then she equipped a small office in my part of a small house. Little by little I managed to buy tools, some equipment. My husband made a surgical table for me, which served me until recently.
Years passed. New opportunities have emerged. For almost 30 years, I managed to collect an impressive library of more than three thousand books. Of these, about a third are books on the treatment of small domestic animals and birds, books on pharmacology and medicine. At the same time, we started building our own house. I managed to buy a small plot in the historical center of Mariupol and get permission to build a new house. There was also an opportunity to improve one's level by attending various veterinary events - from international congresses, conferences to narrow-profile master classes. And it also became clear that in order to provide competent assistance according to modern standards, modern equipment is also needed.
The dream of having my own clinic appeared a long time ago, but it took years before it came true.
Over the years, a very cozy house has been built, with an area of more than 200 sq.m. The house housed my veterinary office, living room, bedroom, kitchen-dining room with access to the terrace, guest room, husband's office and my favorite library. A garage and a workshop were also built into the house, in which the husband made beehives (he is a hereditary beekeeper), furniture and various devices. My office was perhaps the most complete in the city, but still it was not yet a Clinic. Although his equipment already made it possible to carry out endoscopic interventions, it was possible to carry out operations of a rather high degree of complexity. The clinic also performed absolutely free operations for homeless animals - from endoscopic sterilizations to reconstructive plastics.
However, the undeclared war of 2014 began. The city was simply flooded with refugees, many of whom fled from the occupied territories with animals. Cats, dogs, chinchillas, birds, guinea pigs, decorative rats, hamsters and other animals were in a state of stress along with their owners. And the owners often simply did not have the means to pay for our services. Therefore, in most cases, they treated and even operated for free. It should also be understood that the fighting to a large extent affected Mariupol. DPR terrorists entered Mariupol and took control of the city. Naturally, the supply, including drugs, was disrupted. We began to experience serious problems with drugs for anesthesia, antibiotics and others. And the solvency of the population in the overcrowded city has greatly decreased. Difficult times have begun. I had to face a shortage of everything, as in the days of the USSR.
However, fortunately Mariupol was liberated! Life in the city was gradually getting better. There are new plans and new opportunities. The Danish charitable center "Caritas" provided support in the form of partial funding for the endoscopic camera, which I accepted with gratitude.
Years passed. Veterinary medicine continued to develop rapidly. Just as rapidly prettier and developed my hometown. A new pier by the sea appeared, parks and squares were reconstructed, old and newer houses were repaired, modern lighting and modern roads and sidewalks appeared, a record number of various plants, trees and flowers were planted. We felt like part of the free world! A world where you can live well and relax, work, earn, develop. Finally, my dream of having my own clinic became a reality. In August 2021, I bought a small house next to my house and moved most of the equipment (which simply did not fit in the office) to the new clinic. Yes, I had something to be proud! I remember all the equipment and tools to the smallest detail! A soul and a lot of work were invested in each office of the clinic!
I will try now to describe all the equipment that was in the clinic.
- Cabinet of dentistry and maxillofacial surgery. From the equipment: a dental X-ray machine, two dental units, a patient monitor, equipment for working with gutta-percha (Thermaprep oven and a hot gutta-percha injector), a non-contact electrofulgulator, a bipolar coagulator, orthodontic and endodontic equipment, instruments and materials, surgical and several therapeutic lasers with different lengths waves, a unique apparatus for atraumatic extraction of teeth, a surgical instrument for CLS, an operating table, an operating microscope.
- Ultrasound machines’ room with SonoScape, Philips and Toshiba devices, which allow us to make heart ECHO, to provide abdominal examinations, to provide biopsies under ultrasound control, and so on. Of course, an ultrasound table.
- Physiotherapy: a unique magnetotherapy device that allowed crushing stones in the urinary tract and reducing the level of inflammation in the genitourinary area, Luch-3 - a device designed to treat pyoinflammatory processes, UHF, d'Arsonval, therapeutic lasers, including laser blood irradiation and others, less used in veterinary medicine (electrophoresis, high-frequency solux currents, etc.).
- Operating (surgical) room: cardiographs, inhalation anesthesia equipment with mechanical ventilation, additional mechanical ventilation, three oxygen concentrators, endoscopic stand, feedback coagulator (automatic welding machine), two surgical aspirators, flexible endoscopes (three of different diameters) and rigid ones (two laparoscopes with a working channel, nephroureteroscope with working channel, rhinoscope 2.7 mm 0 deg and two 4 mm 0 and 70 deg). There are also many bipolar instruments from different companies. Several sets of surgical instruments.
- Of the trauma equipment - two pneumatic drills, a set of "Synthesis No. (also pneumatic), a machine for processing living bone, a special tool for traumatology, two autoclaves.
- From ophthalmological equipment: slit lamp, set for functional retinal diagnostics, Seidel lamp, Ikar device for measuring IЕP, Kеeller indirect ophthalmoscope with a set of lenses, phacoemulsifier, microsurgical instrument kits, preparations, test strips.
- From resuscitation equipment: 4 incubators, ALV, a «Microlux» veterinary pressure device, three AMBU bags, oxygen cylinders and concentrators (one per incubator).
- In the examination room there is a stainless steel table (three more tables with a lift and an endoscopic table in surgery and dentistry), a direct ophthalmoscope, two microscopes, otoscopes (electronic, operating and examination), stethophonendoscopes, thermometers. Three refrigerators with drugs, racks, catheters, venflons, electric blankets and heating pads and much more.
We worked together and friendly. The team consisted of a few people - three doctors, three assistants, a systems engineer (computer genius) and my husband is a jack of all trades (from electricity to furniture). Of course, a lot of money and efforts were invested. The team consisted of a few people - three doctors, three assistants, a systems engineer (computer genius) and my husband is a jack-of-all-trades (from electricity to furniture). There were some very interesting operations. There were some very interesting operations. For example, removing stones from the urinary bladder of a chinchilla. Or removing tumors from a 20-gram hamster. Transplantation of the urethra in a female rat (due to tumor damage), plastic surgery (reconstructive). I also put braces, orthodontic plates (I went through four stages of the school of Sergey Tkachenko), crowns. Often it was possible to help those animals that were abandoned by colleagues. Endoscopic sterilizations for homeless animals were also carried out absolutely free of charge.
The happy life lasted until February 24, 2022.
On this day, the Russian Federation vilely attacked Ukraine.
My front-line city almost immediately found itself in a ring. From the first day the city was shelled. During the week, electricity, water supply, communications, and gas supply were lost. The city was flooded with military equipment that robbed shops and pharmacies, thereby exacerbating an already difficult situation. City transport did not move due to incessant shelling. However, the animals did not stop getting sick. People came with their pets to us in the hope of helping. And we provided this assistance. While there was still petrol, the generator was turned on for the operation. Then we operated without using a coagulator, applying ligatures and sutures. And then people started to come. I had to sew up the wounds, remove the fragments…
The shelling became incessant. It was no longer possible to be in the house or in the clinic. The glass was shattered by the blast. Then the frames in the windows turned out. Then there were direct hits of shells on the walls and roof. I will not describe how we escaped from the city. This is a different story. But my heart is crying with bloody tears - my country is on fire, my city is destroyed by the russian military, russian aggressors. The result of my whole life - the house and the Clinic are destroyed. A few days later I returned to the city and found that the looters had looted all the property. They took everything that was acquired in a lifetime. But the biggest pain is that the equipment in the clinic was destroyed. The house and the clinic were opened by the invaders. They took everything they wanted, left the doors open with an unexploded mine stuck in the wall.
Will I ever return to the ruins of my home and clinic? Yes. I will return after the complete and final victory of Ukraine over the russian aggressor. Occupiers, war criminals must be punished. And my beloved city will be reborn from the ashes. The city by the most gentle sea. I really want to live until the victory of the free world over the russian evil.
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