April 30 (Brisbane Times) Kharkiv mayor Gennady
Kernes may have been able to see the person who shot him, one of the
surgeons who operated on him yesterday following the attempted assassination
has said.
Dr Andrey Kozachenko, deputy head of
Meschaninov Emergency Aid Hospital said the gunman would have been in front of
Mr Kernes based on the entry and exit wounds caused by the bullet, contrary to
initial reports in which a witness described Mr Kernes being shot in the back. “Yes,
he was shot in the front,” Dr Kozachenko said on Tuesday morning, after he
assisted in yesterday’s surgery. The bullet entered Mr Kernes’ front left side,
destroying one of his adrenal glands and causing damage to his stomach and
muscle around the spinal cord, before exiting his back, he said.
“Fortunately not the liver,
fortunately not the heart, fortunately not the kidney … fortunately not any
major organs,” Dr Kozachenko said. Mr Kernes might have been able to see the
shooter and identify them when he recovers, Dr Kozachenko said, although the
mayor would be facing a recovery of perhaps half a year. Dr Kozachenko said Mr
Kernes, who is Jewish, was transferred to a hospital in Israel at about 3am in
a stable condition for further operations.
He said he wasn’t sure which exact
hospital Mr Kernes was transferred to, but thought it was one in Haifa because
it was close to the border with Syria and the doctors there would have treated
thousands of gunshot wounds. Yury Sydorenko, director of information at the
council, said Israeli doctors decided after examining his wounds that Mr Kernes
could be transported and he was flown out early on Tuesday. He is now being
treated at Elisha, a private hospital in the northern city of Haifa.
