Our young anesthetists in Ukraine are delighted with the delivery of two fully operational portable ultrasound probes and the corresponding iPads. I have already reported elsewhere on how our colleagues are constantly training themselves and others to use more and more regional anaesthesia.
These scantily clad men in the snow looking so friendly have a serious background. They are colleagues from the #Charkiv ambulance service who are practising how to prevent hypothermia in patients.
While the first signs of spring can already be seen here, it is still bitterly cold in eastern Ukraine. Together with our partners Libereco – Partnership for Human Rights - and X-Traverse #Kharkiv, we have sent a total of 1000 children's sleeping bags to the districts close to the front line there.
We have acquired pool of new surgical instruments from a large donation in kind. We regularly send the inventory to Ukrainian clinics, which can order instruments and tools from it. The appropriate items are then delivered to Ukraine free of charge.
In Russia's first Rocket attacks on the city of Kharkiv in Eastern Ukraine this year, several of our rescue service colleagues were injured by so-called double-tap strikes. This involves firing at a (civilian) target several times in intervals in an attempt to kill or injure rescue workers.
t has taken almost an eternity due to new customs regulations in Ukraine and the truckers' strike at the borders.
We don't send out Christmas cards or chocolates. We don't write annual reviews or bake biscuits. We are doing the same as usual - we are working on the next aid delivery.
Over the past year, we have delivered several mobile ultrasound devices to our partners in Ukraine. These are mostly used in emergency diagnostics (e.g. in the FAST protocol for the early detection of internal haemorrhages).
In 2022, 4-Ukraine involved in the creation of a Mobile Primary Health Care Unit (mobile medical practice) for the Ukrainian NGO "Basa_UA". This vehicle brings primary medical care to areas in Ukraine where the regular care system has been destroyed by the Russian invasion.
Winter has now arrived in Germany too. What often leads to romantic notions of a white Christmas there quickly becomes life-threatening here in Eastern Ukraine. Thousands of houses are still without rooves, windows, heating or electricity.