Field Hospital Story

Another Commentary Coming from

An American in Ukraine

by Dr. E. C. Olson, Mission Director

The courageous Doctors and Nurses on the front lines of the War – and how we can help them

Due to the brutally inhumane manner in which Russian forces are imposing their will against the Ukrainian people, especially civilians who have disproportionately suffered from widespread Russian genocide, in order to protect these doctors and nurses (and soldiers), in our reporting we will not be using their real names or the location or names of the villages and Field Hospitals where they are located, nor will we use any other potential identifiers in this reporting.

In his “real life” (or in his life before the Russian invasion), Dr. Yuri was enjoying his work as a child anesthesiologist, tending to the needs of small children in the peaceful historic city of Odessa. Today, and in the five preceding months, his life and his medical practice has changed so dramatically that he cannot even remember what a “normal” day was like for him back then. While Dr. Yuri still tends to small children and continues to perform anesthesiology, that work is now no more than a small percentage of what he routinely does as the sole physician at the ********* Field Hospital, which is located less than two miles from the front lines – or as the Ukrainians refer to it, “The Zero Line”.

Instead, Dr. Yuri now spends most of his days tending to either emergency triage when the fighting is more intense or conducting surgery and care for innumerable patients – military and civilian alike – treating mostly wounds from fragmentation bombs. That need was brought home during the day we spent at this Field Hospital delivering vital medical aid supplies, as throughout the day thudding explosions from near and afar persistently interrupted our conversations.

This phase of the War, or this current style of Russian warfare is based upon Russia’s clear intent to win a war of attrition by day-in and day-out shelling seemingly everything covering the southwester Ukraine landscape: homes, roads, bridges, barns, grain silos and other farming infrastructure – and this Field Hospital itself. Three hours before we arrived, two Russian rockets hit the far end of this small hospital, causing serious damage but fortunately not injuring any medical staff or patients.

“Next time we may not be so lucky” he said to me in remarkably fluent English. “Since the invasion”, he continued, “we have heard of the death of more than 25 doctors, nurses or field medics in just these two western regions, so nationwide that figure is much, much higher.”

To illustrate the complexity and difficulty of the aid distribution in Ukraine, we picked up the majority of our medical supplies in Lviv and drove them more than 500 miles along increasingly more dangerous routes to get here. As described in greater detail in other website articles, the current humanitarian aid predicament is one of distribution and danger.

It is a distribution challenge because the vast majority of humanitarian aid supplies are warehoused in Kyiv or Lviv and some of the “safer” towns and cities located in the northern one-third of Ukraine – while the Ukrainians in greatest need of this aid are found in the southern one-third of the country, concentrated in the combat zones along the front lines as it winds itself east-west for nearly eight-hundred miles.

For our American readers, the map below provides a sense of scale of that distribution challenge – the distance between Kyiv and Kherson is 342 miles while the distance from Lviv, where we picked up our supplies, to Kherson is 596 miles. While the first or northern half of those supply routes support normal driving speeds on decent roads, for the southern half of the journey travel times are doubled or triple as road conditions worsen and military checkpoints are every few miles. So it took us one entire day of driving to get from Lviv to Odessa, then a couple more hours to go from Odessa to Mykoliav, which is the gateway to the southwestern combat zones and front lines.

For why that aid doesn’t routinely get to the people who need it most is attributed to the “danger” element – this aid is inherently needed where the combat action is both intense and frequent, which defines the Zero Line and the communities, and the military camps located along it.

Last week, when meeting with the Ukrainian government and various other humanitarian organizations in Lviv and Kyiv, volunteers were sought out to take these supplies down into these combat zones; our Mission Team was not only the first to volunteer for this hazardous duty, but we were also the only ones to volunteer (and I can assure you, I didn’t hesitate for even one second in raising my hand and offering our services).

Because – as they say – this is what we signed-up for: from Day One our Mission mantra and our overriding goal was to “deliver the most-needed aid to the neediest of Ukrainians.” So for this week of the War, the most needed aid was vital medical supplies and humanitarian aid, and the neediest Ukrainians were these people living along the Zero Line beginning in Mykoliav and Kherson and going eastward from there.

The fifty-plus boxes of medical supplies that we delivered to Dr. Yuri’s Field Hospital ranged from prescription medications and other drugs to surgical instruments and tourniquets and basic supplies like bandages, rubber gloves, suture kits, and examination instruments. During this week we also delivered other medical supplies to field medics and individual small companies of soldiers, with those supplies being mostly battlefield-ready in IFAK pouches we assembled while back in the States before we left for Ukraine.

Given that another major priority of our Mission is fact-finding, in this case we were asking the medical staff at the Field Hospital first, what of the supplies we delivered were the most-needed and least-needed, and second, what other medical equipment or supplies are vitally needed, so that we can tailor our next Mission to providing those needed supplies.

One particular request by Dr. Yuri was especially indicative of the condition-specific basis for this vitally-needed medical aid. He said that since most of the roads and bridges in this area have been destroyed – that factor and the preponderance of small rivers and streams in the vicinity has made getting to the wounded and bringing them back to the Field Hospital especially problematic. The solution was small, lightweight either inflatable rafts or other small portable boats.

“Right now, more so than anything else,” Dr. Yuri explained, “our most urgent need is for these small watercraft.”

Relying on another of our Mission’s basic characteristics – of being quick and nimble in reacting to urgent needs with no bureaucratic obstacles in our way – we immediately began determining how we could mee this timely need. You can only imagine how challenging meeting this request is, but we like every other challenge thrown our way, we never shrunk from the task and we are currently searching around Mykolaiv and Odessa to see if any such watercraft can be purchased or donated, and I have already arranged for one of our Ukrainian Team Members to deliver them to the battlefield once we find them.

Otherwise, once we finish all of the Mission debriefing in the coming days, we will begin to establish needed supply lists and commence fundraising for that medical aid and the other humanitarian aid needs. So please check back here in the coming days for that more formal notice of this fundraising effort.

Otherwise, for those of you who have ready access to potentially donated medical supplies or would be willing to purchase basic supplies, I have listed below our current working list of needed medical equipment and supplies. We are still trying to determine which items are best purchased or donated here in the US and shipped or taken over during our next Mission trip, and which items can be purchased or otherwise obtained in Ukraine – so if this is something that you would like to help with, feel free to reach out to me or Dawn Edwards, our Stateside administrative director and we’ll discuss this.

Critically Needed Equipment & Supplies for Field Hospitals

• Major Hospital Equipment & Supplies
• Oxygen Supplies (tanks, tubing, masks, nasal cannulas)
• Portable Ventilator
• Cautery (400 watt)
• Portable Suction Device (90 L/M)
• Hot Air Sterilizer (85L)
• Oxygen Generator Machine
• Portable X-ray Device with Accessories
• Monitor
• Defibrillator
• Pulse Oximeter
• Abdominal Surgical Kit
• Orthopedic Set
• Laryngoscope
• Blood Pressure Device
• Stethoscope
• Head Lights for Surgery
• OR Table & Lights
• IV Fluids
• Patent Isolation Tent
• Clean Water Source
• Handwashing Stations
• PPE (gloves, gowns, masks, face shields)
• Wound Care Supplies (all bandaging, tape, antibacterial ointments, iodine, gauze)
• Electrolytes
• Antibiotics/Antivirals

Critically Needed Equipment & Supplies for Field Medics & Soldiers

• The best all-in-one item for individual soldiers and field medics is “molle tactical medical pouch” or “IFAK” kits. These kits are pre-assembled with most of the more vitally needed supplies and small equipment included, and they range in price from $20-$30@ up to $100-$130@, with the major difference being what supplies and what amounts are included.
• “Stop-Bleeding/Bleeding Control powder/paste” with or without bandages
• Wound Care Supplies (all bandaging, tape, antibacterial ointments, iodine, gauze)
• “Israeli Battle Dressing”
• Emergency Laceration Kit
• Chest Seal Trauma Dressing
• Tourniquets
• Splints
• Pulse Oximeter
• PPE (gloves, gowns, masks, face shields)
• Suture Kits (thread, needles)
• Blood Pressure Device
• Stethoscope
• Safety Glasses
• Head Lights for Surgery
• Electrolytes
• Antibiotics/Antivirals
• Antibacterial lotions, gels, creams
• Liquid IV Hydration Powder
• OTC medications (all types)

If you’d like to help with these supplies please use our contact form to get in touch with us.