The war in Ukraine through the eyes of a doctor. “The sick ask for any help”

The war in Ukraine takes its death toll not only on the battlefield. Due to the invasion of the s, many people who needed specialist medical care before the outbreak of the war were also dying. A doctor from Ivano-Frankivsk talked about the tragedies of the patients in an interview with Al-Jazeera.

1. As a result of the war in Ukraine, people who needed treatment before the outbreak of the war, were also killed, and now cut off from medical care and medicines
2. Roman Fiszczuk from the hospital in Ivano-Frankivsk, already before the outbreak of the war, he wanted international corporations conducting clinical trials to develop a rescue plan for patients, but these underestimated the threat from Our Country
3. From the dozens of phone calls he receives on the Fiszczuk helpline, an image of the reality, which is full of physical pain, helplessness and fear, which is difficult to accept for him as a doctor, emerges.
4. Fiszczuk admitted directly that some of his patients will die, which could be easily avoided
5. You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page

Due to the war, many medical facilities in Ukraine are running out of drugs. This situation applies to both specialist hospitals and doctor’s offices. Life-saving surgeries are being canceled. The lack of personnel and supplies also suffers from patients requiring palliative care and people whose treatment was dependent on innovative programs run by foreign pharmaceutical companies.

Al-Jazeera contacted Roman Fiszczuk, a 35-year-old ENT specialist from the hospital in Ivano-Frankivsk. cooperated with international companies that conducted research in Ukraine. For many patients, participation in them was the only way to treatment and control tests for multiple sclerosis, cancer, Crohn’s disease and other diseases that could threaten their life or lead to disability.

The Ukrainian health service is in danger of collapsing

Even before the outbreak of the war, the doctor tried to make Western concerns work with him to develop an action plan in the event of an invasion by troops, but these ignored the threat. Patients who participated in their programs are no longer admitted to the hospital due to the risk of bombing, and drugs are delivered straight to their homes. However, there is a shortage of medications and deliveries will eventually be stopped, which will endanger the lives of the patients.

The health care system in Ukraine, according to Fiszczuk, is already functioning with the last of its strength. This is clearly demonstrated by interviews with patients and their families, which he runs daily as a volunteer for the hotline that was originally created by the Ministry of Health in connection with the coronavirus pandemic. People who have lost contact with family doctors, specialists, nurses or social workers during the war call the hotline.

– During a four-hour shift, I can receive from 10 to 20 calls (…). I generally receive phone calls from patients or their caregivers, and the issues relate to both the needs of palliative care and where the child can go for surgery. About half of the cases are urgent and serious. As a doctor, I did not expect to talk to so many people who are facing a senseless death as a result of war —Said Roman Fiszczuk.

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Helplessness and a sense of abandonment. The reality of patients’ lives in Ukraine

In an interview with Al-Jazeera, Fiszczuk quoted several difficult conversations with patients, in which sadness, stress, helplessness and a sense of abandonment emerged in the foreground. It was these emotions that accompanied a woman suffering from breast cancer whose surgery was canceled, a man suffering from esophageal cancer of the fourth degree, who, despite his palliative condition, could not buy painkillers anywhere, or the mother of a man who had been shot in the head.

The question about what to do next was also asked by an 80-year-old Kiev resident who had an amputated leg and complained about ulcers on the other – she needed help, but there was nowhere to come.

– In normal times in Ukraine, there are so many options to help this woman, but talking to her made me feel sad and helpless. The options are very limited now. I am angry with the s who have brought so much suffering to the Ukrainian people. (…) It is hard to understand that this is the situation in the capital of the countrywhere the infrastructure should be among the best. I cannot imagine the conditions in which bombings and fights take place every day. For me as a doctor It is painful to hear people cry and hear their desperation when they ask for any help —Stated the doctor.

Many health care facilities have been destroyed and those that are still operational face huge staff shortages. Some personnel fled the war, and those who remained are overburdened and unable to help all those urgently seeking help. The hospital where Fiszczuk works is still functioning, but only very urgent cases are admitted there. The windows were secured with sand bags and the critically ill patients were transferred to the basement. There, too, were places to receive the wounded.

The picture drawn by Roman Fiszczuk is also confirmed by the patients themselves. In social media you can find, among others voices of patients with SMA (spinal muscular atrophy) or multiple sclerosis, who describe the realities of their lives in bombed and shelled cities. Due to mobility problems, many of them do not even flee to shelters, where it is also impossible to lie down and rest, but tries to wait out the attacks in their homes, hoping that they will not be destroyed by the s.

See also:

1. Waleria: where my mother lives, no emergency transport arrives
2. WHO, medics and volunteers fight for health care in Ukraine
3. Not only the hospital in Mariupol. The s are also attacking other health care facilities in Ukraine