Oksana Leontieva, a pediatric hematologist and single mother, was driving to work when a Russian airstrike hit the center of the Ukrainian capital.
KYIV, Ukraine — Oksana Leontieva was late for work. The 36-year-old doctor was due at Ukraine’s top children’s hospital, where she treated patients with cancer and other serious diseases. But first she had to get her son to kindergarten.
A little after 8 a.m., two missiles hurtled downward toward Kyiv’s leafy Shevchenkivskyi district. One slammed into a busy intersection, ripping a massive crater in the concrete as it erupted in a ball of fire. In an instant, the blast incinerated Oksana Leontieva’s car. She was just a mile from the hospital.
Olha Daschakovska, a doctor who worked with Oksana at Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital, described her death as “murder.” “Russia took childhood not just from her son, but from other patients she could have cured,” Daschakovska said.In February 2022, as Russian troops bore down on Kyiv, the staff at Okhmatdyt hospital hunkered down. Some slept in their offices for weeks.
Her father, Hryhorii Leontiev, said Oksana thought about leaving Ukraine when the invasion began. But she knew that she would need to start her career over, perhaps as a nurse not a doctor. Moreover, she would always be a foreigner, a solo parent far from her family. He hurried to one of the blast sites. Several burned-out vehicles were behind a police cordon. An investigator confirmed the license plate.
After Oksana’s death, Hryhorii and his wife, Ninel, moved into Oksana’s compact, tidy flat in a Kyiv high-rise. Staying in familiar surroundings, they thought, might make things easier for Hrysha. Oksana’s friends and colleagues helped them navigate Ukraine’s complex adoption process, including medical checks.
“I realized that I shouldn’t have said that because of the way he looked at me,” Hryhorii said. Hrysha couldn’t understand that he would be an adult by then. “Will I be alone?” he asked.“Are you dreaming about something? Is something scaring you?” Hryhorii will ask. Hrysha says no. But he tosses in his sleep.unit at Okhmatdyt Hospital, the staff has not yet been able to replace Oksana, who had more than 15 years of training.
She said it is more important than ever for Ukraine to improve its medical care, and generally make the country better than before. “We just really need to make sure that all these people’s lives — Ukrainians lost and all of this — we need to make sure it’s not for nothing.”
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