The pregnant woman was photographed being carried out on a stretcher and the image had since gone viral.
Trigger Warning: This article contains graphic details that may be distressing to readers.
A pregnant woman, whose image went viral after she was photographed being carried out on a stretcher from a maternity ward destroyed in a Russian airstrike, has died along with her baby. The unidentified woman was left with a crushed pelvis and detached hip from the attack in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol. After the place where she was meant to give birth was attacked, she was taken to another hospital.
A pregnant woman whose photo was shared widely after she was pictured being stretchered away from a maternity ward destroyed in a Russian airstrike has died along with her baby. https://t.co/3YvwADtyNy
— VICE News (@VICENews) March 14, 2022
Doctors labored to keep her alive but when she realized she was losing her baby, medics said, she cried out to them, "Kill me now!" Surgeon Timur Marin told the Associated Press that they first delivered the baby through an emergency C-section, but the baby arrived with "no signs of life." Then, they turned to save the mother but after "more than 30 minutes of resuscitation of the mother didn't produce results," he said, "both died." Medical workers were not able to get her name before her husband and father took away her body.
A pregnant woman is evacuated from a maternity hospital after a Russian airstrike hit Mariupol Wednesday which killed at least three people, according to officials.
— The Voice of America (@VOANews) March 10, 2022
👉US Vice Pres. Endorses Calls for War Crimes Probe Into Russia’s Invasion of Ukrainehttps://t.co/kMERXeA0UB pic.twitter.com/8pXXYYAxke
Another pregnant woman, who was photographed coming down the hospital stairs after the airstrike, survived the attack. Mariana Vishegirskaya gave birth to a baby girl. Russian officials reportedly claimed that she was an actor and the image was staged. “It happened on March 9 in Hospital No. 3 in Mariupol. We were lying in wards when glass, frames, windows and walls flew apart,” said Vishegirskaya who is a fashion and beauty blogger. “We don’t know how it happened. We were in our wards and some had time to cover themselves, some didn’t,” she said. In response to assertions that she was not actually pregnant, the BBC's disinformation team found evidence that contradicted the allegations. According to BBC, a Ukrainian presidential adviser has said more than 2,500 residents of Mariupol have been killed in Russian attacks.
Two days ago, an injured Mariana Vishegirskaya escaped the ruins of a Mariupol maternity hospital after an attack by Putin’s forces.
— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) March 11, 2022
Today, she gave birth to her daughter.https://t.co/qQBhTQvkEQ pic.twitter.com/P4cAV4ihgA
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to Twitter in response to the attack. “Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital,” Zelenskyy wrote. “People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror? Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity.” "Nobody is going to break us, we're strong, we're Ukrainians," he told the European Union in a speech in the early days of the fighting, as per PEOPLE, adding, "Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness."
Mariupol. Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital. People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror? Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity. pic.twitter.com/FoaNdbKH5k
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 9, 2022
References:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60734706
Representational Image Source: Getty Images | zorazhuang
