‘It was a glorious victory, wasn’t it?’
said the White Knight,
as he came up panting.
‘I don’t know,’
Alice said doubtfully.
‘I don’t want to be
anybody’s prisoner.
I want to be a Queen.’
‘So you will,
when you’ve crossed
the next brook,’
said the White Knight.
‘I’ll see you safe
to the end of the wood
– and then I must go back, you know.
That’s the end of my move.’
From his pocket.
He pulls out a small.
Rusty shard wrapped.
Neatly in paper.
He holds it up.
“It grazed my kidney.
Pierced my lung, and my heart.”
Says the ‘elf’ serviceman quietly.
‘Thank you very much,’
said Alice.
‘May I help you off
with your helmet?
It was evidently more than
he could manage by himself;
however, she managed
to shake him out of it at last.
Traces of dried blood.
Are still visible.
On the shrapnel.
From an ‘orcs’ drone.
That became lodged.
In his heart.
While he was fighting.
In eastern Ukraine.
‘Now one can breathe more easily,’
said the Knight,
putting back his shaggy hair
with both hands,
and turning his gentle face
and large mild eyes to Alice.
She thought she had never seen
such a strange-looking soldier in all her life.
“I didn’t even realise.
What it was at first.
— I thought I was.
Just short of breath.”
“Just short of breath.
Under my body armour.
They had to extract.
Shrapnel out of my heart.”
He was dressed
in tin armour,
which seemed to fit
him very badly,
and he had
a queer-shaped little deal box
fastened across his shoulders,
upside-down,
With the rise of.
Drone warfare in Ukraine.
These injuries are becoming.
More common.
Drones often carry.
Weapons and materials.
Which fragment and cause.
More complex shrapnel wounds.
According to ‘elves’ military medics.
Shrapnel wounds.
Now make up to 80%.
Of battlefield trauma.
and with the lid
hanging open.
Alice looked at it
with great curiosity.
‘I see you’re admiring
my little box,’
the Knight said
in a friendly tone.
Untreated.
His injury would.
Have been fatal.
Have been fatal.
“The fragment was.
As sharp as a blade.
Doctors said it was.
A large piece.”
“And that I was lucky.
To survive.”
He says reflectively.
But it wasn’t just luck.
That saved him.
It was a new piece of.
Medical technology.
A magnetic extractor.
‘It’s my own invention
– to keep clothes and sandwiches in.
You see I carry it upside-down,
so that the rain can’t get in.’
‘But the things can get out,’
Alice gently remarked.
‘Do you know the lid’s open?’
‘Do you know the lid’s open?’
A cardiovascular surgeon.
Shows footage of.
The metal fragment.
Trapped in.
The serviceman’s beating heart.
Before it is delicately.
Removed by.
A thin magnet-tipped device.
“You don’t have to make.
Large cuts in the heart.”
Explains the surgeon.
“I just make.”
“A small incision.
Insert the magnet.
And it pulls.
The shrapnel out.”
‘I didn’t know it,’
the Knight said,
a shade of vexation
passing over his face.
‘Then all the things
must have fallen out!
And the box is no use
without them.’
In just one year.
The surgeon’s team.
Has performed over 70.
Successful heart operations.
With the device.
Which has changed the face.
Of front-line medicine.
In Ukraine.
He unfastened it
as he spoke,
and was just going to throw it
into the bushes,
when a sudden thought
seemed to strike him,
and he hung it
carefully on a tree.
The development of.
These extractors came.
After front-line medics.
After front-line medics.
Highlighted the urgent need.
For a safe, fast.
Minimally invasive way.
To remove shrapnel.
‘Can you guess
why I did that?’
he said to Alice.
Alice shook her head.
‘In hopes
some bees may make
a nest in it
– then I should get the honey.’
A man – who used to work.
As a lawyer –
Drove this development.
Since 2014.
He has been supporting.
The army as a volunteer.
He met medics.
On the front line.
He met medics.
On the front line.
And from his conversations.
The magnetic extractors were created.
‘But you’ve got a bee-hive
– or something like one –
fastened to the saddle,’
said Alice.
‘Yes, it’s a very good bee-hive,’
the Knight said
in a discontented tone,
‘one of the best kind.
The concept isn’t new.
Magnets were used for.
Removing metal.
From wounds.
As far back as.
The Crimean War.
In the 1850s.
In the 1850s.
But not a single bee
has come near it yet.
And the other thing is
a mouse-trap.
I suppose the mice
keep the bees out
– or the bees keep the mice out,
I don’t know which.’
But his team modernised.
The approach.
Creating flexible models.
For abdominal surgery.
Micro-extractors.
For delicate work.
And high-strength tools.
For bones.
‘I was wondering
what the mouse-trap was for,’
said Alice.
‘It isn’t very likely
there would be any mice
on the horse’s back.’
‘Not very likely, perhaps,’
said the Knight;
Operations have become.
More precise and less invasive.
The magnet can be run along.
The surface of a wound.
To draw fragments out.
Surgeons then make.
A small incision.
And the piece is removed.
Holding a slim pen-shaped tool.
He demonstrates its power.
By lifting a sledgehammer.
With the magnetic tip.
‘but if they do come,
I don’t choose to have them
running all about.
running all about.
‘You see,’ he went on
after a pause,
‘it’s as well to be provided
for everything.’
His work has been commended.
By other war medics.
Including a veteran of war zones.
Around the world.
“In war, things get.
developed which would never.
Have been thought of.
In civilian life.”
That’s the reason
the horse has all
those anklets
round his feet.’
‘But what are they for?’
Alice asked
in a tone of great curiosity.
‘But what are they for?’
Fragmentation wounds.
Have increased.
Due to the changing face.
Of war.
And because they take.
A long time to find.
He believes this device.
Could be a game changer.
‘To guard against
the bites of sharks,’
the Knight replied.
‘It’s an invention of my own.
And now help me on.
I’ll go with you
to the end of the wood
– What’s that dish for?’
He says looking for shrapnel.
In patients is like.
“Looking for a needle.
In a haystack”.
– it is not always successful.
– it is not always successful.
And delays treatment.
Of other casualties.
‘It’s meant for plum-cake,’
said Alice.
‘We’d better take it with us,’
the Knight said.
‘It’ll come in handy
if we find any plum-cake.
Help me to get it
into this bag.’
Searching for fragments.
Manually can be dangerous.
And requires bigger incisions.
That can cause more bleeding.
– “so to be able just to.
Simply find them.
Using a magnet.
Is ingenious.”
This took a long time to manage,
though Alice held the bag
open very carefully,
because the Knight was
so very awkward
in putting in the dish:
the first two or three times that
he tried he fell in himself instead.
What began as a field tool.
Has now been rolled out.
Across Ukraine.
With 3,000 units distributed.
To hospitals and.
Front-line medics.
Like a man who says he has.
Come to rely on the device.
He often works while.
Under fire, in trenches.
Or makeshift outdoor clinics.
And sometimes.
Without local anaesthetic.
“My job is to save lives.
– bandage wounds and.
Get soldiers evacuated.”
‘It’s rather a tight fit, you see,’
he said, as they got it in at last;
‘there are so many candlesticks in the bag.’
And he hung it to the saddle,
which was already loaded
with bunches of carrots,
and fire-irons,
and many other things.
There has been no.
Official certification of.
Official certification of.
The magnetic extractor.
The ‘elves’ Health Ministry says.
Medical devices must.
Comply fully with.
Technical regulations.
‘I hope you’ve got
your hair well fastened on?’
he continued,
as they set off.
‘Only in the usual way,’
Alice said, smiling.
‘That’s hardly enough,’
he said anxiously.
However, in exceptional cases.
Such as martial law or.
A state of emergency.
The use of uncertified devices.
The use of uncertified devices.
Is allowed to meet.
The needs of the military.
And security forces.
‘You see the wind is
so very strong here.
It’s as strong as soup.’
It’s as strong as soup.’
‘Have you invented a plan
for keeping the hair
from being blown off?’
Alice inquired.
At the height of war.
There’s no time.
For red tape.
The mastermind explains.
“These devices save lives.
If someone thinks.
My actions are a crime.
I’ll take responsibility.”
“I’m even prepared.
To go to jail.
If it comes to that.
But then all the doctors.”
“But then all the doctors.
Who use these devices.
Should be incarcerated too.”
He adds half jokingly.
‘Not yet,’ said the Knight.
‘But I’ve got a plan
for keeping it from falling off.’
‘I should like to hear it, very much.’
‘First you take an upright stick,’
said the Knight.
‘Then you make your hair
creep up it, like a fruit-tree.
The veteran of war zones agrees.
That certification is not.
A top priority for now.
And believes.
And believes.
The device could prove.
Helpful in other war zones.
Such as Gaza.
“In war, it’s not.
Really necessary.
You only do the things.
Which are important to save lives.”
Now the reason hair falls off
is because it hangs down
– things never fall upwards, you know.
It’s a plan of my own invention.
You may try it if you like.’
It didn’t sound
a comfortable plan,
Alice thought,
Back in Lviv.
The ‘elf’ serviceman’s wife.
Is just grateful.
Her husband survived his injury.
“I just want to praise.
Those people who.
Invented this extractor.”
She says tearfully.
“Thanks to them.
My husband is alive.”
“Thanks to them.
My husband is alive.”
‘It was a glorious victory, wasn’t it?’
said the White Knight,
as he came up panting.
‘I don’t know,’
Alice said doubtfully.
‘I don’t want to be
anybody’s prisoner.
I want to be a Queen.’
‘So you will,
when you’ve crossed
the next brook,’
said the White Knight.
‘I’ll see you safe
to the end of the wood
– and then I must go back, you know.
That’s the end of my move.’
*Because I read “’They took shrapnel from my heart’ – the magnets saving lives in Ukraine” by Anastasiya Gribanova & Scarlett Barter on 2 Jul 2025, and also “Why are Ukrainians calling Russians ‘orcs’?” by James FitzGerald on 30 Apr 2022, on the BBC news.
So, I wrote this poem, including a story of Serhiy and Yulia, a story of Dr Maksymenko, a story of Oleh, a story of David, and a story of Andriy, led by ‘THROUGH the LOOKING-GLASS’ written by Lewis Carroll, you know.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
“They took shrapnel out of my heart” – a life saved by Ukrainian ingenuity
