“Two died, several will remain disabled”: a pediatric traumatologist about injuries in Bishkek. Interview

“Health” (AKIpress) – Every day, up to 450 children are admitted to the trauma center of the Bishkek City Children’s Hospital. Play areas in shopping centers, trampolines, scooters, open windows of high-rise buildings, swings in courtyards—children get injured everywhere.

Head of the hospital’s trauma center Aziretbek Valiev told what injuries are most common this summer and made an appeal to parents.

– How long has the department been operating? What is the appeal rate among children and how relevant is the problem of child injuries now?

– Our hospital is the City Children’s Clinical Emergency Hospital, popularly called the “third children’s hospital.” Operating since 1966. Today we have 24 departments in different areas: surgery, traumatology, urology, somatic pathologies, neurology. In 1993, a separate trauma center was allocated – it differs from the emergency departments of other hospitals in that it provides assistance, including to returning patients. We work around the clock, accepting children from zero to 18 years old. The staff consists of 33 employees, of which 13 are doctors of the highest category.

Childhood trauma is a very pressing problem. Every year the population grows; after 2021, there are noticeably more patients due to internal and external migration. If in 2022 about 87 thousand children with injuries came to us, then in 2025 – already 97 thousand 365. Growth – 10 thousand calls in 3 years. In early spring, children go outside, they are attracted to playgrounds, attractions, and play areas, and the number of injuries increases sharply.

– What injuries are most typical for this period?

– Very often people come to us because of children’s play areas in shopping centers, of which there are more. Unfortunately, there are no specialized doctors or specialists who should regulate this. This results in children being admitted with severe injuries. Safety precautions are not always followed, and very serious injuries occur. There were one or two cases where children spent several months in the intensive care unit after injuries and received repeated surgical treatment. For example, there are restrictions: children must play until they are 6 years old, but this may not be enforced. They can move into the area for older children. In the senior area there are long distance rides and someone needs to supervise this, but without supervision children get seriously injured. Especially on a trampoline: children jump and when they fall they cannot control themselves, as a result, their limbs suffer – arms, legs, and are treated with displaced fractures. There are times when timely qualified assistance is not provided. Displaced fractures should be immediately immobilized. Very often people come to us without fixation, which causes swelling, deformation and pain to increase. Children arrive with painful shock. Therefore, I would recommend that such gaming centers provide areas with at least one specialist who can provide qualified assistance.

– You mentioned scooters and electric scooters – how serious is this problem?

– Very serious. You don’t need a driving license, so whoever wants to drive can drive. Teenagers have a high craving for adrenaline, they pick up speed without following any safety rules. In 2025, there were 2 fatalities due to scooters. Another 3-4 cases were polytraumas: the leg, arm, and head were simultaneously injured; the operations were carried out in several stages; the children spent several months here. Some of them may remain disabled. I would like the UPSM employees to pay attention to this and introduce appropriate restrictions.

– What other injuries are typical for the warm season?

– In spring and summer, children are often admitted who were injured during trips to nature and the mountains. Parents eat, children are left unattended. The main risks are falling from heights and drowning in rivers. I ask parents: do not leave your children alone. A separate problem is falls from windows. Children fall from the second and third floors, this leads to comminuted fractures, requiring several stages of surgery. Parents must install protective bars. Even a fall from a height of 3-4 meters in a private home can lead to serious consequences. And also swings in the yards: 10-15 children a day come to us from this injury alone. Wounds to the head, face, concussions, fractures. The parents are looking at the phone at this moment.

– How great are the chances of a full recovery? Do you have everything you need for treatment?

– Depends on the nature of the injury. Recently, a child fell from the sixth floor, remained alive, and a full recovery is possible. But there are damages that cannot be completely restored anywhere in the world. For example, when a dog chews a child’s head and there is no skin on the skull, we gradually transplant tissue from other parts of the body, but this is a long way. In terms of the level of operations, we are not inferior to Turkey or Russia. The supply of metal fixators is about 90%, in 85% of cases we perform the same interventions as abroad. By the end of the year, a new surgical building with MRI, CT and portable X-ray machines will be completed.

– What are the real working conditions of the department: workload, personnel?

– Daily turnover – 400-450 patients. Only to our branch. Emergency appointments are provided by two doctors per day – the norm is at least five. There are only 13 doctors on staff, which is catastrophically few. Patients have to wait, although we accept emergency cases – with bleeding, shock, after an accident – right away. There is hope that after the salary increase in April, specialists who went abroad will begin to return.

– Have there been any cases of aggression towards staff?

– Unfortunately, yes. Some parents raise their voices, and sometimes they raise their hands against doctors, demanding that they accept them faster. We don’t have a police officer on duty, but we would need one. Most of our specialists are young doctors; the older generation cannot withstand such stress. We regularly invite psychologists to train staff in working with aggressive parents.

– How much more difficult is it to work with children than with adults?

– Much more difficult. The child cannot accurately describe what hurts, is afraid of the doctor, cries and resists. High professionalism is required to make a diagnosis in such conditions. It happens that parents complain about their left hand, but their right hand hurts. Modern X-ray machines help us. An adult patient will calmly explain everything himself – this will not work with children, but an examination must be carried out in any case.​​​​​​​​​​​​​

– What would you like to recommend to parents?

– First of all, supervise your children, especially at night. This applies to children from 12-13 to 17 years old. They often go out at night, driving around the city when there are fewer cars on the roads. Scooters and electric scooters are a common cause of nighttime injuries with serious consequences, including disability. Previously, there were fewer such cases because there were no electric scooters. Nowadays electronics are developing, life is becoming more convenient, but there are also significantly more injuries.

– You mentioned not only transport injuries. What else worries you in the spring?

– In spring, animals, especially dogs, noticeably increase their aggression towards people. If a child does not know how to behave around a dog, it may bite him. There are still a lot of stray dogs in the city – without an owner, without vaccination. Measures to catch them intensified after high-profile cases, but the problem did not disappear.

– How common is this problem? How often do such patients come in?

– Every day we receive five or six children with dog bites – and this is only in the spring. From March to the end of May is the peak of requests. A little less in summer, isolated cases in autumn and winter.

– How serious are these injuries?

– Physically – in different ways: somewhere a hand was bitten, somewhere a scratch, somewhere several bites. But the main thing is moral trauma: fright, fear that can remain for life. Even adults are afraid when a dog bites them. My own child was bitten last year – to this day, when he sees a dog, he begins to feel stressed, panicked, and apathetic. We worked with psychologists, but so far there is no result. I hope it goes away with time.

– Are there other sources of injury that parents should be warned about?

– Yes – children’s playgrounds. In the spring, children with injuries are also often admitted from there. Children can knock each other down or fall from a slide or trampoline. Dear parents, never leave your children unattended on the playground. This can save them from a lot of trouble.