A British Columbia doctor who is travelling to the Ukraine is soliciting money for specialist medical supplies that she plans to bring there in order to support local medical teams dealing with a “absolutely horrific” scenario.
Dr. Tracy Parnell, who is from the Cranbrook town in the Kootenay region, will be visiting the war-torn nation for the third time.
After hearing tales from a colleague in Lviv about gynaecologists at front-line field hospitals trying to pick up trauma surgery on the go, Parnell decided to make her first journey over.
Parnell, an expert in emergency medicine and crisis and disaster management, said, “The demand is just so tremendous there.”
To be completely honest, I find it difficult to tell who is a combatant and who isn’t along the front. Even the babushkas in their 80s are dressed in camouflage. Anyone who is injured is given care.
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Doctors near the front, according to Parnell, are using surplus Second World War canvas stretchers and other out-of-date and subpar medical equipment.
They are used repeatedly, she continued. “You can’t get the blood out,” I mean.
Crews on the ground need modern equipment, along with specialized gear to help them treat patients once winter arrives, she said.
An Edmonton business called CToms, which specialises in combat medicine, has promised to set aside around $150,000 worth of supplies for Parnell’s subsequent journey, and it has provided the equipment that she needs.
One thousand tourniquets, two thousand chest seals, special heating blankets, and IV warming pumps are all part of that inventory.
She plans to ship as much of that equipment as she can fund in the next several weeks to Ukraine for her next trip to the front.
She said, “These folks are doing incredible things with very, very little, and the equipment is beyond primitive.”
The very least they should receive is the same calibre of medical supplies that we have to treat these terrible wounds.
Parnell has primarily collaborated with a team of volunteer doctors known as the Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital.
Although Parnell admitted that travelling to Ukraine has risks, she added that the tireless zeal of the medics and the unwavering spirit of the civilians had motivated her to do so.
“After having been there and seen what I have seen, these people are genuinely fighting for freedom, to be free from the tyranny that many of the people we’ve seen escaping from Russian controlled territories speak about,” she said.
They desire independence and the opportunity for their children to have the same choices as your children or my nieces and nephews do.
Anyone wishing to make a donation is asked to etransfer the funds to CToms, which has established a separate account for the fund, directly.
Donations should be sent to Allyson@ctoms.ca with account S0177110 as the reference.
A BC physician is gathering money to send medical supplies to the front lines in Ukraine.
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