It is recorded. Pediatric emergency room, Kharkiv regional hospital, three in the morning, Wednesday, May sixth, two thousand twenty-six. Three children arrived at two forty. All three with fragment wounds, Shahed drone, explosion on Saltivska Street, sixth floor of an eight-story building, residential district. The nurse at the triage desk is named Olha, forty-seven years old, eighteen hours into her shift, a cup of cold tea beside the monitor.

It is recorded that the attending physician, Dr. Petrenko, has been in the operating room since two twenty with a pregnant woman, emergency delivery, placental abruption, obstetric code red. Room two is occupied until further notice. Room one is free. The other nurse, Ivanna, is upstairs in pediatrics on the fourth floor, setting up the three cots.

It is recorded that the three children are in three parallel cots, separated by transparent plastic curtains.

Cot A. Girl, three years old, name written on the chart in Cyrillic characters, Polina. Pale skin, eyes open, not screaming, abdomen pulled upward, monitor shows heart rate eighty-eight. Olha sees it.

Cot B. Boy, seven years old, name Sasha. Light blue nightshirt, open wound on right thigh, metal fragment visible, compression applied by parents during transport. He is holding a black plastic remote control, the kind for infrared toy cars, with two arrows and a dial. Heart rate is one hundred forty-two. Compensating.

Cot C. Boy, five years old, name Maksym. Right shoulder, fragment, screaming at regular intervals. Heart rate one hundred thirty. Compensating.

Olha knows that those who scream compensate. Knows that those who do not scream do not compensate. The three-year-old girl is the worst sign. The three-year-old girl is the one who should go in first. She knows it from her hands before her head.

It is recorded that hospital protocol states that operative triage, the decision of who enters the room first, is made by the physician. The nurse stabilizes, positions, monitors. The nurse does not decide who.

Olha looks at the phone on the desk. The phone light is off. Dr. Petrenko will not answer in the next ten minutes. Maybe twenty. The pregnant woman in room two is hemorrhaging.

She approaches cot B. Sasha is holding the remote control with both hands, knuckles white, fingertips yellowish. His eyes are fixed on the ceiling, not on his thigh. The boy is still playing. He is playing with a remote control without the car. He is playing so he does not look at his leg.

"Sasha." Olha speaks softly, in Ukrainian. "You have to give me the remote control. Now we have to do the X-ray. You cannot have metal things on you."

Sasha does not let go. Does not speak. Olha bends down. Places one hand over his. Her hand is large, Sasha's hands are small. She pries one finger loose. Then another. The remote control falls onto the sheet. Sasha opens his hand. Keeps looking at the ceiling.

Olha takes the remote control. Looks at it for an instant. Black plastic, the arrows, the dial. She sets it on the cart beside the cot. Turns toward cot A.

It is recorded that the red call-physician button, on Polina's monitor, is pressed by Olha at three fourteen and seconds not recorded. It is recorded that the orderly on duty, Andriy, arrives at cot A at three fourteen and forty. It is recorded that Olha tells him, voice steady, operative code, "take her to room one. Now. Abdominal obstruction, suspected. Notifying Dr. Petrenko via intercom."

It is recorded that Andriy looks at Olha for half a second. Then releases the brake on Polina's cot. Pushes it toward the corridor. The door to room one opens. Closes.

It is recorded that at three eighteen Polina enters the room. At three twenty Dr. Petrenko, finished with the delivery, reaches room one. Opens the chart. Looks at Polina's abdomen. Confirms Olha's diagnosis. Begins.

It is recorded that at three twenty-two Olha returns to cot B. Sasha is still there. The thigh keeps bleeding. Olha picks up the remote control from the cart, turns it between her fingers. Bends over the boy. "I left you without it, Sasha."

Sasha looks at the ceiling.

"Sasha, can you hear me?"

Sasha does not speak. Sasha does not answer. Sasha does not look at Olha.

Olha places the remote control under his right hand, gently, fingers relaxed on the sheet. Sasha's hand does not close. Olha waits. Counts to five in her head, then to ten. Sasha's hand does not close on the remote control.

Olha pulls hers back. Goes to cot C, to Maksym who has stopped screaming and is now crying softly. Presses the call button for the second orderly. Raises the IV bag.

It is recorded that at three twenty-eight Dr. Petrenko exits room one. Polina is stable. Sasha enters the room at three thirty. When the orderly lifts him from the cot, the remote control stays on the sheet, beside the white crease left by the body.

Olha takes it. Puts it in the pocket of her uniform. Goes to the sink. Washes her hands. It is recorded that she washes them for forty-five seconds, counted. It is recorded that afterward she does not dry them right away.

It is recorded that Sasha's father arrives at three fifty. It is recorded that Olha will give him the remote control at four ten.