Donetsk, Dec 23 — DAN. The Donetsk People’s Republic Transport Ministry has given a certificate of appreciation to the bus driver who evacuated passengers during shelling and drove a heart attack victim to hospital in June, the Ministry’s press service reported on Friday.
The incident occurred near the Motel bus terminal in June. On that day, Kiev forces delivered a strike at the area with NATO-supplied artillery.
Sergey Shapovalov, a bus driver on route Khartsyzsk-Donetsk, risked his life to get the passengers out of artillery range. One of the passengers suffered an nervous shock and was in critical condition. The driver called the emergency medical service and took her to hospital.
The woman was diagnosed with heart attack, but doctors provided medical assistance in time thanks to the driver. It took her a lot of time to recover, and after her discharge from hospital, she asked DPR authorities to find and thank the person who had saved her life.
Acting head of the Ministry’s motor and electric transport safety department Artur Nesterov handed in a certificate of appreciation to Shapovalov.
People have learnt to help each other in various difficult situations over the years of the conflict. With most human heroism off-camera, some cases occasionally get media coverage. In early December, the Donetsk City Hall commended assistants of the supermarket and pharmacy in the former Moskva department store in Donetsk for courage in saving people during an artillery attack. In December, a Donetsk cafe waitress was decorated with the medal “For Courage.” She was wounded in shelling as she was saving cafe visitors and passers-by. In November, a 16-year-old Mariupol resident was decorated with a courage medal for saving a five-year-old girl by shielding her with her body during shelling.*jk