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This soldier has been wounded six times, and twice had to stitch up his own leg by himself instead of a surgeon. In November 2024, he spoke with us of how his training at the headquarters helped him save a machine gunner with the call sign "Sober".
"I have six wounds, but I'm not going to be discharged from the army. I feel that the boys and girls here, on the front line, need me," 45-year-old senior combat medic Andrii Kimlyk begins his conversation with us. "But my 77-year old mother still thinks that I work at a hospital. I don't want her to be nervous, I'll tell her everything after the victory."
A Kharkiv native with the call sign "Doctor Alban" has been serving since the summer of 2022. He took part in the liberation of the occupied part of the Kharkiv region, in the defense of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, and is still currently serving in Donetsk region.
"In my values system, I'm at war until victory," says the man, who in civilian life worked as a paramedic and chiropractor.
Kimlyk volunteered to join Ukrainian army. He is glad that his native unit is actively supported by former patients and just acquaintances from his civilian life.
“Volodymyr and Mila from the Netherlands purchased a generator, night vision devices, thermal imagers, drones. Tatyana helped with thermal imagers, FPV [drone], and a vehicle. Thanks to my friends Oleksiy and Artur we got a minibus, a motorcycle, and even an ATV. I am grateful to everyone who is always ready to rush to help us and the army in general,” the medic emphasizes.
“Certain needs for medical supplies are fulfilled by the brigade, and for others we can only come to volunteers or charitable foundations. Hence I have successfully contacted Leleka Foundation / Leleka-Ukraine three times by now. I received fully-stocked backpacks, stretchers, occlusive patches, soft splints. Unfortunately, first-aid supplies are consumables. Things get soaked with blood, fall in the mud. There are emergency situations when you have to leave things at the positions,” says “Doctor Alban” about medical needs.
We ask where his call sign came from. “It’s a funny story,” Andrii smiles. “At first, the guys just called me “Doc.” But since there was another “Doc” in the neighboring unit, with whom we often crossed paths, we had to come up with something else. At that time, my phone had a ringtone by the Swedish singer Dr. Alban with the song “It's My Life.” That’s how my call sign turned into “Doctor Alban.”
Ukrainian field medic hasn't taken a leave in 1.5 years. His wife Kateryna jokes that he only comes home when he’s injured. As the soldier already mentioned, he had been wounded six times. The most serious one, a shrapnel wound in the thigh, he got in a battle in Bakhmut. It took Andrii a month to recover from that injury.
Kimlyk uses an example of a specific patient to explain the importance of continuous training for field medics.
“Our machine gunner with the call sign “Sober” was wounded in the neck. Blood gushed out, he clamped the wound, then the department commander came running, also clamping. Then I rushed over from another position. The guy was conscious, I calmed him down, put a tourniquet on his neck over his shoulder. He survived,” Andrii recalls. He says that he learned this technique at the headquarters near Pokrovskoye: “In the fall of 2022, my battalion was seconded to the 110th brigade. And then I was sent to their headquarters for training. They brought a guy there with a similar injury. One of the combat medics on the battlefield was putting a tourniquet on his neck over his shoulder. It was the first time I had seen something like this, I was interested. And then surgeon Volodymyr taught how me to do it.”
But the medic is ironic about his injuries.
“I’ll tell you a funny story. I got another shot in the leg, I ended up in a hospital in [the city of] Dnipro. The surgeon was already ready to stitch up the wound, but he was urgently called to another seriously injured soldier. He said that he would return in a couple of hours to stitch me up. But I suggested that I do everything myself. The doctor agreed, leaving the operating room nurse to look after me. I handled it well. The second time with a wound in the same leg, I ended up in the same hospital, with the same surgeon. He recognized me and asked: "well, are we working according to a proven scheme?", shares his memories the Ukrainian defender. He adds that he pulled out small fragments from himself many times, stitched up small wounds and "ran on". He says that even on the front lines he tries to act with as much humor and optimism as possible.
Wife Kateryna and two daughters, 19-year old Albina and 16-year old Nastya, await Senior Sergeant of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andrii Kimlyk at home. And, of course, the elderly mother who does not know that her son is fighting in one of the largest brigades.
Published: November 28, 2024
Photo credit: Andrii's social networks and his photo reports to Leleka Foundation