Exclusive: Doctor Who First Reached Trakia Motorway Crash Victims Speaks to BNT

Orthopaedic surgeon Svetla Zhekova was caught up in an incident on the Trakia Motorway while travelling to work in Burgas. She helped rescue injured people from the wreckage of crushed vehicles, taking care to minimise their pain as much as possible. Her assistance at this critical moment proved invaluable. She says the things she will remember for the rest of her life are the scale of the crash and the anguish of being unable to help everyone.

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On that fateful Tuesday, orthopaedic surgeon Svetla Zhekova was travelling from her home town of Yambol to the hospital in Burgas. An unexpected delay at home saved her from the motorway inferno. She saw people running through the fog beside the crash barriers, shining torches. She stopped near the wrecked vehicles and joined the firefighters.

Dr Svetla Zhekova, orthopaedic and trauma surgeon: "I said to the firefighter: 'Hello, I'm an orthopaedic surgeon. I'd like to help if I can, because I can see there are still no ambulances here.' He immediately took me on board and said: 'Yes, thank you, we'll need your help.' He put me in the pick-up truck and we drove into the crash scene."

Dr Zhekova says that nothing in her 15 years of experience in operating theatres had prepared her for what she saw.

Dr Svetla Zhekova, orthopaedic and trauma surgeon: "We were the first emergency response teams there. There were bodies in the cars. Some people had been thrown out onto the ground. There were people groaning, trapped in crushed vehicles... Some of the injured were in shock and distressed; they did not know where they were. We would ask them, 'How are you?', but they could not tell us or explain what had happened... I am used to seeing people with serious injuries, even death. But no one is prepared to witness the scale of what we saw."

The most agonising part was waiting while firefighters cut through the metal to free those trapped inside.

Dr Svetla Zhekova, orthopaedic and trauma surgeon: "This leaves very distressing memories... There is no way you can help everyone at the same time."

The doctor says she also witnessed extraordinary acts of human solidarity. People with less serious injuries carried the severely injured over the crash barriers to the ambulances.

Dr Svetla Zhekova, orthopaedic and trauma surgeon: "All you had to do was ask for help – everyone rushed forward to do whatever they could, because everyone understood what had happened..."

Dr Zhekova continues to travel along the same route to this day.

Dr Svetla Zhekova, orthopaedic and trauma surgeon: "Sadly, what I will remember is the helplessness of medicine at certain moments. Every doctor has studied in order to be able to help and wants to give everything they can, but it is not always possible..."

That is why she says she hopes to put the tragedy behind her as quickly as possible.