Themes by tag: doctors

KoLeSo (Wheel) is a network of educational and training centers for tactical medicine (Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih, Zaporizhia, Mykolaiv and Vinnytsia). The network’s founder, Olha Omelchuk, has been a medical instructor in the Armed Forces of Ukraine since 2014.

Since March 2022, about 38,000 people, both military and civilians, have received free pre-medical care training at the centers. The courses are based on the tactical protocol — Tactical Combat Casualty Care.

The training (tactical first aid in combat) spans a 6-hour course, which includes both theoretical and practical components. After that, participants have the opportunity to engage in online workshops facilitated by the instructors, which will help revise the material. Additionally, participants can opt to participate in “Module 2” and successfully pass the exam and obtain a certificate.

Journalists can cover the training and talk to the students. If they wish, journalists can also undergo training.

• doctors
• Kyiv

Sviatoslav Nikolaichuk became the founder of “Genesis & System Solutions” center for the rehabilitation of veterans in Vinnytsia. In 2015, the man voluntarily joined the Defense Forces and served as a signalman in the 59th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade. Sviatoslav served for one and a half years, participated in the battles near Popasna, Luhansk region (now the city has been completely destroyed by the russians and is under occupation). He was discharged after the birth of his third child.

With the beginning of the big war, the veteran volunteered, and later began to create a rehabilitation center to help soldiers, who have lost their limbs, manage phantom pains.

One of the servicemen who have already walked this path is the veteran of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Mykyta Makazan, who had lost his leg near Bakhmut, Donetsk region. Virtual reality helped the man to get rid of phantom pain – the same technology will be used in “Genesis & System Solutions.” The assistance to veterans will be provided using modern equipment. For this purpose, they purchased virtual reality glasses, two laptops, suspension systems and special exercise bikes for the rehabilitation of the upper and lower limbs. The center received financial support worth UAH 2.5 million from the Ukrainian Veterans Foundation. In addition to virtual reality, the center will also feature traditional rehabilitation. Currently, the facility is already accepting veterans, and will officially open on January 29. 

• casualties
• doctors
• Vinnytsia

Yulia Torbenko is a rescue paramedic with a special-purpose emergency rescue unit in Bila Tserkva, Kyiv Oblast (part of the State Emergency Service). She has been doing this for about 14 years. Earlier, in civilian life, Yulia was a paramedic in the EMC team. 

With the all-out invasion outbreak, she and her colleagues stayed at work. There were many casualties due to enemy missile attacks and air strikes, as the war grinds on. 

Yulia provided first aid to everyone who needed it: under fire, clearing rubble, and responding to road accidents. She also accompanied demining teams while clearing mines in the de-occupied Kyiv region.

Despite all the risks, Yulia also continues to save people who have suffered from enemy attacks.

• casualties
• doctors
• Kyiv

Before the full-blown invasion outbreak, Andrii Kopytsia was in no way connected with medicine aside from having first aid care certification. The man ran a cafe he started in Zatoka, Odesa Oblast, and never thought first aid course knowledge would ever come in handy. However, on February 26, 2022, Andrii mobilized and went off to war. The soldier joined a unit that needed an army medic.

Later, the soldier was given the “Lifesaving Award” from the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. After he became a third-time father, Andrii resigned from the service. Andrii’s cafe in Zatoka had to be closed as a result of a Russian munition landing near it. So the man decided to open a new place, this time in Odesa. Andrii put up the money he had earned while he was at war. Later, he applied for a state microgrant program for combatants and won it, but has not yet used the state funds. His “Unbreakable Coffee Shop” has already opened its doors to visitors, and anyone can buy a drink for the military so that they can also support those who are defending the country at the front.

• doctors
• food
• military
• Odesa

Yuliana is a resident of Bakhmut, Donetsk region. On the day when she decided to leave the city with her family, the enemy began to attack her residential area.

The woman managed to cover her head with her hands during a powerful explosion. Having regained consciousness, she realized that she was under rubble. Yuliana remembers that when she was getting helped with getting out, she noticed that the fingers on her hand had been ripped apart. It felt as if the limb had been completely torn off.

The wound did not heal well, part of the muscles had to be cut out. The doctors did not know what to do with the hand next. Due to the improper growth of bones and muscles, no one wanted to undertake treatment. However, Yuliana later found out about the national program “Save the Limb,” the specialists of which are currently fighting to save her hand.

For reference: The “Save the Limb” national program was launched last year upon the initiative of the International Charitable Foundation “Health of the Ukrainian People.” Its mission is to prevent Ukrainians from becoming disabled via 15,000 surgeries to save the limbs of both the military and the civilians.

Battles for Bakhmut began in August 2022, although the russians had been shelling the city since the spring. By May 2023, russian troops occupied most of Bakhmut. Due to constant russian shelling, the city was razed to the ground. Yuliana’s apartment was also destroyed.

• casualties
• doctors
• women

On October 10, 2022, fragments of a russian rocket hit the body of the waiter Valerii when he was on his way to work in Kyiv. The victim remembers how people were running and shouting nearby, pieces of iron were flying, cars were honking.

Medics removed fragments of the rocket from Valerii’s eye and leg. As a result, parts of his two ulna bones were torn out. At first, the doctors talked about amputating the limb, but still managed to save it. The leading expert of the national project “Save the Limb” took on the task of saving the crippled hand. So far, Valerii has undergone several surgeries and joint replacement.

For reference: The national project “Save the Limb” initiated by the International Charitable Foundation “Health of the Ukrainian People” started at the end of last year. Its mission is to stop the Ukrainian people from becoming disabled by holding 15,000 surgeries to save the limbs of both military and civilians.

• casualties
• doctors
• russian crimes

Oleh Bykov is a volunteer and activist from Kremenchuk, Poltava region. With the beginning of the full-scale war, Oleh started looking into how to make it easier for medics to work with projectile fragments that remain in the bodies of wounded soldiers after being injured. Oleh’s team managed to create magnetic devices, which they named “Edelweiss” and “White Angel.” These are special devices that help doctors detect metal fragments in the wounded and safely remove them.

Oleg and his team can produce up to 50 magnetic devices in a week. More than 800 devices have already been delivered to hospitals and front lines by volunteers. “Edelweiss” and “White Angel” are used in many medical institutions of Ukraine, in particular, in Kyiv Hear Institute and O. O. Shalimov National Institute of Surgery and Transplantology in Kyiv.

• casualties
• doctors
• military
• volunteers
• Poltava

The news media representatives are welcome to attend the all-Ukrainian prosthetics training, which will take place at the Nezlamni Center in Lviv on December 6. The attendees will have an opportunity to film the process behind fabricating prostheses made by foreign specialists and interview them about their willingness to help Ukraine and the challenges our country faces in the field of prosthetics.

In order to train new specialists in prosthetics education and raise the overall level of those already working, the UNBROKEN National Rehabilitation Center has launched a country-wide training program. Foreign specialists will visit Lviv to share their knowledge with prosthetists from all over Ukraine.

On December 4-7, the training will be conducted by specialists from Fillauer LLC, one of the world’s leading orthopedics and prosthetics companies. Participants from Kyiv, Dnipro, Ivano-Frankivsk, Odesa, Poltava, Zhytomyr, and Zaporizhia came to Lviv for the training. These are prosthetists ranging from 3 months to 23 years of experience. 

During the workshop, special attention is paid to the manufacturing process of upper-limb prosthetics. After all, one of the main tasks for prosthetists is to determine the optimal functional purpose of artificial hands in cooperation with doctors.

Three patients of the Center have already been measured, and got their artificial limbs being made for them, within the training framework. At the end of the four-day workshop, these patients will be fitted with prostheses.

For reference: This year, 15 thousand prostheses have been fitted in Ukraine at the expense of the state alone, and experts assume that at least as many have been fitted at charity. However, while the number of fitted lower limb prostheses is measured in thousands, the number of upper limb prostheses is in the hundreds. At the same time, 30% of amputations today are of the hands. There are very few specialists who know how to “install hands”, so patients have to wait six months or more for a new limb.

• casualties
• doctors
• Lviv

Bozhena Hrynko pursued a dental specialty such as orthodontics, but she wasn’t committed to dentistry for long. Instead, she started her own business, dealing with recyclables. With the full-scale invasion outbreak, she moved her family to the Zhytomyr region, and after the de-occupation of Bucha and Irpin, she returned to the capital. Bozhena’s husband has been in the military since February 24, 2022, as he is a career soldier.

In the spring of 2022, Bozhena mobilized to the 44th Separate Rifle Battalion as the head of the medical service and medical center. On December 12, 2022, Bozhena got injured in the Donetsk region. She stayed four months in hospitals.

Bozhena and her husband bought a house in the Kharkiv region, where new homeowners settled with their daughter after her injury and rehabilitation. The military woman gives free lectures and practical classes on tactical medicine and handling explosive ordnance at the local lyceum. Next to the Bozhena housing, there is a vacant undeveloped land where she, her husband, and fellow soldiers plan to start a rehabilitation center for the military.

• doctors
• military
• volunteers
• women

On December 1, journalists are invited to attend the medical conference “Health of the Nation and Society”. The physical and sexual rehabilitation for the military is the event’s main topic.

The conference by: the Association of Urologists of Ukraine, the State Institution Academician Vozianov Institute of Urology, and the National Institute of Sexology and Sexual Health. Other themes to be discussed include research and current issues of modern urology and men’s sexual health.

Event accreditation is required.

• doctors
• Kyiv