The Szpital Hospital (no126 Complex) is the most radioactive place in the whole exclusion zone of Chernobyl because the firefighters who taken off clothes are in the basement, near the entrance door. The larger than 900 μSv/h radiation can be lethal in an hour if you stay near, which exceeds the norm by hundreds of thousands of times. Radiation levels in the rooms of the basement with fireman’s uniforms radiate around 2-3 roentgens per/hr.

Pripyat City Hospital № 126 was once a busy hospital on the outskirts of the city. It’s located on Druzhby Narodov street, next to the first micro-district. The hospital wing is part of several healthcare-related complexes named МСЧ-126.

On the roof of the hospital, a sign reads Health of the Nation – the Country’s Wealth. The hospital had 410 beds as well as clinics spread out across five interconnected buildings each six stories high. Close to the cafe and dock it sits on Druzhby Narodov Street (Friendship of the People Street) and accounts for most of Microdistrict 1 within Pripyat City. The clinics and outpatient buildings are spread out across several interconnected buildings. Complex МСЧ-126 had also a Morgue, Maternity Ward, Infectious disease Ward, and a Dental Clinic.

It was here, where on the night of the Chernobyl disaster at the nearby Nuclear Power Plant, many firefighters and workers were initially treated. In the aftermath of the accident, 237 people suffered from acute radiation sickness. 28 died according to World Health Organisation’s 2006 report, within the first three months. The victims were mostly firemen and rescue workers. Their clothes still remain in the hospital basement, too contaminated to be moved. Later patients were flown to Moscow, which had the only hospital in the Soviet Union to treat radiation injuries. Unfortunately, all of them passed away during a few weeks in Moscow’s Clinical Hospital No. 6.

On the roof, large letters stand proud and read “Здоров’я народу – багатство країни” – “health of the people – riches of the country”.

Tools, medical instruments, and documents were left in a mess everywhere. Radiation levels here are high, the basement of the hospital is considered the most dangerous place in Pripyat. Hastily dumped in the basement these items of clothing, including boots, helmets, and gloves, have lain protected from the elements for decades. Likely pulled on in a hurry during the early hours of the 26th April in 1986 they still emit dangerously high levels of radiation over 30 years later. At 1:24 AM local time happens something that will change the world forever.  The sleepy nurse at the front desk does not yet know this. Soon, there will be plenty of yelling and movement. Meanwhile, some in the city are awake and marveled by the intense flames of fire that rise from the nearby nuclear power plant. At the nuclear power plant, firemen fight for their lives and everyone else’s lives. The fire must be extinguished. The first firefighters, at 1:28 AM, came from the nearest fire station and didn’t have protective clothing or equipment to handle disasters at a nuclear power plant. Soon, several firemen had acute radioactive radiation poisoning. The firemen are constantly vomiting and the five fires on the roof of the reactor cannot be extinguished. Ambulances with firefighters begin to shuttle between Chernobyl and the hospital in Pripyat. More and more firefighters with heavy radioactive clothing began to arrive at the hospital. Some put their clothes on the desk’s counter. The reception desk is today a place to avoid.

A sobering reminder of the levels of radiation those people first on the scene were exposed to. In theory, anyone exposed to radiation at the Power Plant should have been washed and dressed in uncontaminated clothing at the plant prior to arrival at the hospital. That didn’t happen and by 10 am in the morning 108 firefighters and plant workers had been brought directly to the hospital. Without an adequate filter or hazmat suit, I chose not to venture into the basement. A decision I don’t regret.

The hospital was abandoned the days after the disaster. It was no longer possible to work in an environment with that much radioactivity inside. The whole hospital is considered to be very harmful to health and the authorities have tried to seal the building. But in a huge six-story building, new openings are constantly being found.

Next to the hospital, there is a gynecologist’s chair.

The Crematorium (Morgue, Prosectorium, Autopsy Room, and Dissecting Room) of Pripyat is one of the most mystical scariest, and haunted places of Pripyat.

We were careful enough not to go inside the Hospital, but we explored instead the Crematorium with the autopsy tables, vials, test tubes, old medical equipment. There were also a few rubber gloves, and interestingly left microfilms and films, and lots of handwritten notes. The cemetery of Pripyat is also here, next to the Crematorium. At the entrance, the radiation is also high at a larger metal object.

Between the two buildings, there was a Garage Row, with several garages which stayed un-opened since the disaster. Who knows what kind of old cars may be left there. We’ve just found an old cash register in one of the open garages, and some helmets, shoes, chairs.

• chernobylplace.com/the-basement-in-hospital-126-hell-room-in-pripyat/
• chernobyl.one/pripyat-city-hospital/
• chernobylgallery.com/galleries/pripyat-hospital/
• meanderingwild.com/pripyat-hospital-ukraine/
• chernobylexplorer.com/Pripyat-Hospital
• travelblogeurope.com/dangerous-abandoned-hospital-pripyat-chernobyl/