Vancouver doctor returns from Doctors Without Borders mission near Ukrainian conflict zone

A Vancouver doctor has returned from a six-week stint in eastern Ukraine, where he was part of team providing medical training to Ukrainians.

Dr. Piotr Michalowski was part of a mission with Doctors Without Borders.

He and his colleagues helped train surgeons, nurses and civilians in small hospitals only a few dozen kilometres away from the front lines.

Michalowski supported them in the operating room and also taught them how to triage patients of mass casualty events.

“As a person, it’s always difficult to see gravely wounded people in wartime,” Michalowski said. “(But) you put your professional hat on and you do whatever needs done.”

Michalowski told Global News the amount of patients that would come into the hospital was eye-opening.

“On one day, after shelling of people who were leaving a factory and waiting for the bus, we had 16 people come in, in a very short time,” Michalowski said.

“(I saw) injuries related to shelling, not only shrapnel but blast damage as well.”

Michalowski said many of the injured civilians were victims of what he describes as “indiscriminate shelling” from the Russian army.

“If you want to be very kind to the Russian side, you would say that they’re using very imprecise ordinances. But I don’t see a reason to be very kind,” Michalowski said.

“I think it’s a very purposeful strategy of scorched earth tactics and completely indiscriminate shelling of people’s living quarters.”

Doctors Without Borders has sent “mobile clinic teams” to Ukraine to provide medical, psychological care and training.

“We see many elderly, people with disabilities, and people who can’t afford to make the journey further west in Ukraine or abroad,” said Célia Burnand, a Doctors Without Borders’ project coordinator.

“Our job is to complement the impressive work of local authorities, volunteers, health care staff and social workers, and make sure people who’ve been through incredibly traumatic experiences get the medical and psychological care they need.”

According to Doctors Without Borders, mobile clinic teams have been sent to many areas around Ukraine including in Berehove, Chernihiv, Dnipro, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kropyvnytskyi, Mukacheve, Uzhhorod, Vinnytsia and Zaporizhzhia.

Related News