A pregnant woman and her baby have died after Russia bombed the maternity ward where she was to give birth, reports the Associated Press. Images of the woman being rushed to an ambulance by ambulance circulated around the world, representing the horror of the attack.
In video and photos after the hospital bombing in Mariupol last Wednesday, the woman was seen caressing her bloodied lower abdomen as the rescue team was rushing through the rubble.
The woman was taken to another hospital, where doctors tried to keep her alive. After realizing she was losing the baby, the doctors said, she called out, "Kill me now."
Timur Marin, a surgeon, said he found the woman's pelvis crushed and her hip dislocated. Doctors performed a cesarean section, but the baby had no signs of life, Marin said. They then focused on the mother. "More than 30 minutes of trying to bring it to life had no results," Marin said. "They both died."
In the chaos after the attack, doctors did not have time to take the woman's name before her husband and father came to retrieve the body. At least someone came to pick her up, they said, so that she would not end up in one of the mass graves being excavated for many of Mariupol's dead.
Accused of war crimes, Russian officials claimed that the maternity ward had been taken over by Ukrainian extremists to be used as a base and that no patients or doctors had been left inside. Russia's ambassador to the UN and the Russian embassy in London called the images "fake news."
Meanwhile, field reporters have reported on the attack on the Mariupol maternity hospital, a besieged city that has more than a week without food, water, power or heating supplies, where electricity from emergency generators is used for operating rooms.
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Sources: Associated Press, Guardian
