After a long ambulance journey across the country, Nikita was wheeled in to a hero"s welcome from his colleagues at the Kyiv Civilian Hospital No 5. He was taken up to a private room with a large open window overlooking pine trees. About mid-morning on Wednesday, the chief of medicine and chief surgeon came to visit him. They had been waiting nervously for news of Nikita, and they were both brought to tears by his return. Two of their other colleagues, a married couple, had recently been killed with their children by a Russian shell.