Critically wounded patients from South Ossetia arrive to hospitals in North Ossetia

Most of those wounded in South Ossetia arrive to the Central Clinical Hospital (CCH) of North Ossetia. Some of the CCH doctors have left to render help in the conflict zone and to the border, as Kazbek Gusov, CCH's Chief Physician, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"All the wounded people brought here are emergency patients. While in the first days we accepted mainly those with light injuries, with tangential wounds and fractures, now patients arrive with combined traumas. We have a military here who had suffered a thermal burn of his face, upper respiratory ways and extremities. His burn area reaches 40 percent, and additionally he has an open gunshot hip fracture," said Mr Gusov.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has managed to talk to wounded residents of South Ossetia. Zalina Ostaeva left the warfare zone together with her daughter, later she got to the North Ossetian hospital with her left shoulder fracture.

"We were told that Georgians had entered the city. 'Run, run away,' they shouted to us. We all got into one car. When we moved along the Zar Highway, they opened fire on us; we jumped out of the car and ran away as fast as we could. Then, my shoulder was shot. We ran and ran... Then we saw a truck that was transporting wounded people; I was taken there and brought to Dzhava village," said Zalina Ostaeva, a resident of Tbet village, South Ossetia.

The Ostaevs have their father and father's sister left in South Ossetia.
Zalina Ikoeva was hospitalized with a gunshot wound of her right leg and a bruise of the left one. "Everything is on fire there, everything is ruined. I have no words to describe what happens there. We don't even know who has gone away and who is still there. Snipers are shooting all the time, nobody can get out," she said.

Another woman from South Ossetia narrated how she managed to survive. "We spent 24 hours in our fifth floor, then, in a calm moment I ran to a neighbour; she has a good cellar. There, I spent another day-and-night. We were seven in number when we left Tskhinvali. We drove without headlight, crashed into a tank and received fractures and bruises. Then we got under shelling, and I was wounded. Others received fragmental wounds. We survived just by miracle," said Bella Kochieva. As she said, nothing has remained from Tskhinvali.

Alan Besaev, who is now in hospital with a gunshot wound, also gave a story on what happened in South Ossetia. "We were shelled from a mortar and a grenade launcher and from many other weapons. They shelled Tskhinvali from grenade launchers. When the dust went up, we got a chance to runaway and get out of there. We run, but a sniper shot at us. We fell down and remained lying until reinforcement forces picked us up," he said.

Many residents of South Ossetia who managed to quit the disputed zone are coming in plenty to hospitals trying to learn any details about their relatives and friends from the wounded persons. They cry all the time, many are in deranged condition. Those who remained in South Ossetia are still sitting in cellars without water and food, they are afraid to get out because of snipers.