March 20: To Save a Limb or Not
UKRAINE CONFILCT Spent the day visiting patients. Many are far from families. We brought oranges and chocolate, massaged some hands and toes. We joked and chatted through a translator and hope we eased some of the pain or at least provided a distraction. Some were clearly in a lot of discomfort. Pain is treated with ibuprofen. It is hard to [...]
March 17: Today we met the war
UKRAINE CONFILCT Today we met the war. We drove to Zytomyr to deliver ortho supplies to a clinic. On the two hour drive we passed bombed out buildings, houses, bridges. In the town we saw the school, apartment buildings, houses and hospital that were hit by missiles.The hospital that is still standing has many complex patients, injured by war.We met [...]
March 15: The Protez Prosthetic Center
UKRAINE CONFILCT The Protez Prosthetic Center is a joint project with two brothers, both Ukrainian, one living in Minnesota, the other here in Mukachevo. There are over 15,000 amputees and they need prosthetic limbs to heal. This organization has brought over 30 patients to the USA for complex prosthetics . There are over 750 on the waiting list. They can [...]
March 12: Delivering Critical Orthopedic Equipment
UKRAINE CONFILCT Our team is now in Mukachevo, western Ukraine. Our many bags of trauma supplies have been loaded into a van and are on the way to the front lines in Bekhmut where there are raging battles with many injuries of Ukrainians and Russians.We have delivered critical orthopedic equipment to a trauma surgeon here. He is a pediatric trauma [...]
March 11: HOG Team Back in Ukraine
UKRAINE CONFILCT Today our Ukrainian driver picked us up in Budapest, Hungary and we drove to Mukachevo, Ukraine. Crossing the border took a while as we had 17 bags of medical supplies packed to the max.They were filled with trauma supplies including 100 tourniquets, medications and limb-saving orthopedic supplies. The Hungarian border control had us open three random bags and [...]
Road trip: Where are they now – Part 5
These stories will introduce you to refugees we worked with in the Greek camps. We are following their journey and to let them know they have not been forgotten.SH - 36 year old, family of four from AfghanistanFrom Afghanistan they traveled by car to Iran, stayed only one week in Iran and slept in a park. From there they walked [...]