Lviv has become the medical center of Ukraine. It is here that people from the east of the country flee the war. Although there are enough doctors, the equipment is lacking. It is good, modern, because it is Soviet, and it is out of warehouses.
- There is only one monitor in the hospital where Dr. Zorjana works to measure the vital signs of patients in intensive care units (ICU)
- Dr. Dmytro lost the patient because he did not have the equipment to perform a specialized x-ray
- Ambulances with Polish and British registration numbers, full of bandages and first aid kits come to Lviv hospitals. However, this does not solve the problem
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The cardiologist of one of Lviv hospitals, Dr. Dmytro, still cannot come to terms with the death of a week-old patient. Little Andrij had a congenital heart defect and urgently needed a specialist x-ray. Meanwhile, one angiograph (a device for visualizing blood vessels and organs of the body) is allocated to several Lviv hospitals, and the influx of patients from eastern Ukraine significantly extends the waiting time. It was too long for Andrij.
«It destroyed me as a doctor. He should have been alive, it wasn’t a condition that should have killed him. (…) It destroys you, especially when you understand what could have solved this problem. In this case it was another angiography machine » — Dr. Dmytro told The Guardian.
Fot. Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesFot. Getty Images
On the verge of exhaustion
Hospitals in Lviv are overloaded due to internal migrations caused by the invasion. After the medical departments in the east of the country were closed, many doctors moved west to strengthen medical care in Lviv. The medical staff treats Ukrainians coming from all over the country on a daily basis, treats the wounded and admits patients with difficult diseases.
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What is missing is not the staff, but the equipment that has either remained in other hospitals or has been destroyed. Dr. Zorjana from the children’s hospital in Lviv says to The Guardian: “We lack certain materials and equipment because we are not used to so many heavy patients. And that’s the real problem right now » — explains. There is only one monitor in the hospital where he works to measure the vital signs of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU).
Ambulances with Polish and British registration numbers arrive at the hospital, full of bandages, morphine, first aid kits, feeding probes. This, however, does not solve the problem of the lack of specialized equipment. “If the operating table is busy, patients with a heart attack or stroke have a much greater chance of death or neurological deficits … An extra hour could increase the risk of death by 20%.” — explains Dr. Dmytro.
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Soviet equipment
Dr. Denis, who escaped from the Dnieper and is now the medical director of the anesthesiology and intensive care unit at a children’s hospital, says that the quality of the equipment is also important to the health and lives of patients. Using old, Soviet machines found in hospital warehouses may lead to incorrect diagnoses.
The Minister of Defense of Ukraine recently said: “What we ask NATO for are not soldiers — close the sky and give us modern ammunition, machinery and equipment. […] We have a lot of weapons, but from the Soviet Union ». And he added: «The situation is similar in hospitals. Give us modern equipment and modern medical supplies ».