More than 60 Ukrainian Doctors Received Training in Diagnosis and Treatment of War Injuries owing to Cooperation between International Humanitarian Organization MedGlobal and TNMU

On July 2-7, 2022, six two-day training sessions were held on the basis of I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University for more than 60 doctors of medical institutions of Kyiv, Lviv, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, and Lutsk. The training was organized by the international charitable public organization MedGlobal, with the support of the Ministry of Education of Ukraine and the organizations “Razom” and “UMANA”. The main goal is for Ukrainian doctors to gain knowledge and practical skills in effective wartime methods of trauma diagnosis and types of surgical intervention in polytrauma.

One of the two-day trainings was dedicated to mastering the practical use of portable ultrasound diagnostics (USD) devices. The advantage of this equipment is mobility, therefore, with their help, it is easy to diagnose the wounded or injured at the stage of transporting the patient to the hospital or in the field. In this case, patients are admitted to the hospital with clear diagnoses and receive the necessary operative medical care. In times of war, portable ultrasound machines and the skills to use them make it possible to save as many military and civilian lives as possible.

Another block of trainings was dedicated to mastering the methods of diagnosis and treatment of war injuries from wounds, explosions and burns in different parts of the body. Practical medicine surgeons learned how to control bleeding, shunt, prevent blood contamination, and properly treat and close wounds. The key point of the training was operative surgical assistance during numerous injuries and wounds with a clear sequence of actions to effectively save the patient’s life.

The training consisted of theoretical and practical parts. Narin Ahmed and Tetiana Bukyerka shared their knowledge and experience in using portable ultrasound devices, and Juda Slavkovski and John Sherk taught surgeons how to treat polytrauma. The trainers are medical volunteers, qualified experts each in their field, and also have extensive experience in training doctors in countries at war.

Training for doctors who mastered ultrasound diagnostics took place in the centre for medical simulation, surgeons acquired important skills in the centre for minimally invasive technologies and at the Department of Operative Surgery and Clinical Anatomy. After completing the course, all participants received appropriate certificates from “MedGlobal”.

“In Ukraine, the organization “MedGlobal” began its mission in March 2022 in response to a military threat. This charity organization works with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine and the State Emergency Service to identify local medical needs. Over the course of four months, “MedGlobal” donated medicines and medical equipment for Ukraine in the total amount of almost two million dollars, and also trained more than 500 doctors from 11 regional hospitals to treat war injuries,” said the regional representative of the organization, Olha Romaniv.

Another regional representative of “MedGlobal” in Ukraine, Khrystyna Kachmar, added that the practical part of surgery was particularly interesting. At TNMU, trainers of the charity organization for the first time in Ukraine performed surgical interventions of the bullet wounds not on simulated material, as during previous trainings. Participants mastered their practical skills on large laboratory animals. The knowledge shared by American experts is extremely valuable.

Doctor Narin Ahmed, one of the co-organizers of “MedGlobal”, who trained Ukrainian doctors in the peculiarities of ultrasound diagnostics, noted that “it is very important for our organization to support doctors and all people in Ukraine at this time. We sympathize with you and want to do something good for Ukrainians, share our knowledge and skills, which you will definitely need and help save many lives. This is my second visit to Ukraine. I also have the best impressions of Ternopil Medical University: the campus here is very nice, we are treated extremely warmly, the organization of our courses is simply excellent! We will only be glad about further cooperation with such a wonderful university”.

The humanitarian organization “MedGlobal” handed over the “Butterfly” ultrasound device to TNMU which is used for rapid ultrasound diagnostics of emergency conditions. The Rector of Ternopil Medical University, Professor Mykhaylo Korda, thanked the American doctors for the valuable gift and noted that it will help to transfer knowledge and experience to many Ukrainian doctors on the basis of the training centre for medical simulation, and the skills will be mastered by university students.

“Today, the support of the world community, especially the government and citizens of the United States of America, is very important. Without your assistance, it would be difficult for Ukraine to resist Russian aggression. Thank you for teaching our doctors to provide medical care in war conditions for six days. I hope for further cooperation,” said Prof. Mykhaylo Korda.

TNMU Press Secretary, Yanina Chaikivska.

Photographs by Yanina Chaikivska.