Yuriy Futuyma: “Students’ main task is to study hard”

On February 24, 2022, with the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine, Associate Professor of L.Ya. Kovalchuk Department of Surgery No.1, Urology, Minimally Invasive Surgery and Neurosurgery, Yuriy Futuyma applied to the Military Commissariat to join the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and defend the homeland. He has been a military medic for more than a year. Yuriy Futuyma recently visited TNMU and talked about his experience.

“Due to the fact that I did not study at the military department, I had to start the medical service as a paramedic. This did not pose much of a problem for me, since the main desire was to take care of the lives of the defenders. As a paramedic at a medical centre, I had the opportunity to perform his duties near Kupyansk, in the Donetsk and Luhansk directions. For the most part, my main task was training soldiers and medics, which I am still doing today,” Mr. Yuriy says.

Due to the lack of theoretical military training, he was forced to independently master basics of military affairs and tactical medicine. He watched a lot of videos, read books, and also gained practical skills during trainings from American volunteer surgeons of the MedGlobal organization, Italian paramedics and others.

“I, let’s say, had no skills in tactical medicine, because we were not taught that. Today’s students are more fortunate in this regard, because they have the opportunity to master and polish skills in pre-medical care and participate in trainings during their studies.

As for soldiers, those who have not yet been on the front lines do not yet understand the full importance of the ability to provide medical aid. Those who have combat experience very carefully master all the basics of tactical medicine. They understand that there can be a lot of bleeding losses. It is this category of soldiers who ask to show them how to save their lives and the lives of their fellow soldiers. They share their experience,” Yuriy Futuyma added.

Today Dr. Yuriy Futuyma is side by side in the army with his students. After studying at the military department, they have higher positions, officer ranks and are its leaders. Despite this, everyone feels like a single team, so collegiality is in the first place.

“I respect them because they are my students and have a very clear civic position, and they respect me as their former teacher and mentor. We work very closely together and act as a team. I have always treated students as my colleagues, and during the war this attitude crystallized more strongly. There are older graduates of the university and I have known them since the time when I was still a young teacher. We have a slight age difference, so we communicate easily. There are students whom I have not yet taught, and they are already in their 3rd year. They hope that they will have the opportunity to be with me. Now a medical team is being formed, and during these almost one and a half years of full-scale war, I became a resident doctor and soon I will receive the rank of junior lieutenant”, – TNMU Associate Professor speaks very warmly about the relations in the military team.

He emphasized that he never dreamed of a military career and wants to return to teaching.

During his stay in the front zone, Yuriy Futuyma’s duty was to evacuate the wounded and train the military. He also emphasized the power and importance of prayer.

“I pray constantly and recommend it to everyone. It helped me more than once. There were cases when head-on collisions were avoided during evacuation, because cars drive at high speeds, because this is the front. Once it happened that they decided to finish their studies a little faster. We arrive the next day, and at the place where the training was held, there is a tear from a rocket. That is, someone saw that we were studying and gave the coordinates to the Russians. If the training had lasted longer, there would have been many victims,” said Yuriy Futuyma.

He wished the students to study. “I told them even during peacetime that the university obliges to study and live fully, because these are young years and a person discovers the world. I will say that later it is difficult to teach what I missed at the university. Because time will take its toll – family, children, work will take the lion’s share of time and energy. Accordingly, basic knowledge should be taken and learned at the university. And one more task is to be ready to defend the homeland, so you need to study military science, tactical medicine and much more,” Dr. Yuriy Futuyma addressed the future doctors.

He thanked TNMU for the help in the form of a portable laptop for maintaining medical records and for constant support and assistance.

TNMU Press Secretary, Yanina Chaikivska.

Photographs by Mykola Vasylechko.