“We are not afraid of blackouts!”. The history of the head of the “green” dispensary in the Kyiv region

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The outpatient clinic in the village of Gorenka in the Kyiv region can safely be called a local “celebrity”. This is the only “green” medical institution in the district – only not in terms of color, but in terms of ecological technologies.

Solar panels are installed on the roof of the dispensary, and a heat pump system is installed in the backyard – it is responsible for heating the building. The outpatient clinic is power-independent and local doctors are confident that they will be able to provide care to people even during potential new blackouts.

Gorenka, which is part of the Buchansky district, was not occupied by the Russians. At the same time, the village became one of the most destroyed in the Kyiv region – 77% of the territory was damaged in the settlement.

The head of the outpatient clinic, 34-year-old pediatrician Olena Opanasenko recalls with a trembling voice how the war came to Gorenka.

Olena told “UP. Life” how the dispensary was damaged by the Russians and how it was subsequently restored.

Head of the outpatient clinic, 34-year-old pediatrician Olena Opanasenko

Gorenka was so bombed that even stray dogs were afraid to walk the streets

On February 24, 2022, at 6:30 a.m., her best man called her with terrible news. Soon she herself heard explosions and gunshots from the airport in Gostomel – a Russian landing party was trying to land there.

Olena Serhiivna told her two daughters, husband and mother to move to the basement, while she hurried to the outpatient clinic to see patients and vaccinate children together with her colleagues.

“I didn’t even have such a thought – not to go to work, even though the aircraft was already noisy around, there were traffic jams everywhere – the pediatrician mentions, – People did not fully understand what was happening, they came for routine examinations. Towards the evening, when the total bombardment began, the doctors went home.”

The outpatient clinic in Gorenka worked until the beginning of spring, doctors helped patients even under the threat of shelling and in the complete absence of electricity.

On March 4, 2022, a Russian projectile hit the yard of the institution. Fortunately, there were no people in the medical facility at that time. The blast wave knocked out and opened the windows in the building, causing the heating system to fail.

Olena Opanasenko, who together with the territorial defense assessed the damage and tried to save the surviving equipment, realized that there was no longer any possibility to receive patients. In addition, at that time, Gorenka was so bombed that even stray dogs were afraid to walk the streets.

On March 4, 2022, a Russian projectile hit the yard of the institution

The pediatrician lived with her family in her brother’s basement, occasionally entering the house to sleep for at least a couple of hours on a normal bed. On the night of March 5-6, the Russians began shelling Gorenka with phosphorus bombs.

“At 2 o’clock in the morning I woke up to the fact that my eldest six-year-old daughter was shaking, she was just shaking with fear. I decided that if we lived until morning, then we had to leave.”– says Olena.

At first, the family thought of moving to the Lviv region, where some of their relatives had already settled. But during the exhausting journey, the doctor’s mother became very ill, and the family stopped in the village of Dashkivtsi, Khmelnytskyi region.

The locals allocated an old house with a stove to the residents of Gorenchi, Olena was able to get a job as a pediatrician at a local hospital. Neighbors and colleagues constantly helped the family with food and clothes, Olena Opanasenko still remembers this incredible support with great gratitude.

Already in Khmelnytskyi it became known that the Russians destroyed the house of Elena’s mother in Gorenka – nothing remained of it. Another blow was the news that Elena’s sister’s husband had died in Mariupol – currently his photo can be seen on a billboard in Gostomel.

Doctors’ daughters

Coming back home

Opanasenka lived in Dashkivtsi for three months. When the occupiers were driven from Kyiv and the electricity supply was restored, the family returned home.

At first it was very difficult – in Gorenka, power outages began again, food had to be cooked over a campfire. However, at the end of May, Olena Opanasenko returned to work at her home clinic. At first, many of her patients and children were abroad. But later, families began to return en masse to Gorenka – according to the doctor, now, out of 700 of her patients, only about 25 babies are still outside the country.

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Life began to return to the Gorensk dispensary. The history of the medical institution affected the well-known environmental organization Greenpeace. In partnership with Ukrainian organizations, the dispensary damaged by the blast wave was rebuilt using the most modern green technologies.

In particular, a heat pump was installed in the dispensary, which accumulates the heat of the earth and transfers it to the heating system with the help of an external circuit. Today, a heat pump is one of the most environmentally friendly means of warming rooms, which allows you to save up to 80% of heating costs.

In order for the device to work even during a power outage, a hybrid solar power plant was installed in the dispensary, which can cover up to 60% of the energy consumed in a year. In total, the reconstruction of the facility cost 56,000 euros, the payback period is approximately 7 years.

“Green energy is just great! – doctor Olena Opanasenko shares her impressions. – As soon as our external grid goes down, the system automatically switches to solar power in one second. We do not turn off refrigerators with vaccines, computers, printers, nothing at all. In winter, there will be a year when we are not afraid of blackouts”.

A hybrid solar power plant was installed in the dispensary, which can cover up to 60% of the energy consumed per year

According to the doctor, the local residents initially distrusted the innovations in Gorenka. But their opinion changed dramatically during the blackouts. When the entire village was cut off, the dispensary was fully operational. People came here to drink tea, charge their phones and just talk and bask in the heat. There were days when the staff did not even notice that there were power outages in Gorenka.

Therefore, today Olena and her colleagues are not at all worried about the fact that they will be able to provide the necessary support and treatment to the residents of their community. At the same time, the pediatrician worries about how the war affects the health of local children.

Babies still suffer from insomnia, stuttering, and incontinence at night. Even her youngest 4-year-old daughter, playing Barbie, begins to imitate the siren and say “Air alarm, go down to the shelter!”. But she, both as a mother and as a doctor, does not allow herself to give up, because she must be a support for children.

Daryna Rohachuk, especially for UP. Life

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