“ If I evacuate to the west to some safe place, people will die ”

This article was originally published in Emergency Physicians International. On Feb. 23, Dr. Vitaliy Krylyuk was helping run a medical conference in Kremenets‎ City — a small, picturesque town in the western region of Ukraine. Early in the morning of Feb. 24, as Krylyuk and his colleagues prepared for a series of EMS competitions, they heard the news. Russia was invading their country. Ukraine was under attack. For about an hour they watched and waited, locked on the news reports. Then, one by one the emergency physicians and various staff got in their cars and left. Rather than stay in the relative safety of western Ukraine, or evacuate across the border, most drove east to their home cities, towards Russian tanks, towards uncertainty. Krylyuk, knowing that his family was safe in rural Ukraine on the Romanian border, drove back to Kyiv where he works as an emergency physician at Kyiv Hospital of Emergency Medicine. The rest of his team made sure their families were safe and returned as well. Together, they moved into the hospital in order to be ready for what might come next. Even with the single-mindedness of the EM staff, ironically there is no staffing shortage to speak of…at least not yet. Dr. Vitaliy Krylyuk “We have 15 people who now stay in the hospital around the clock,” Krylyuk said with a look of grim pride. “That’s my team, surgery, nurses, anesthesia and others. Perhaps once or twice a week, we go to our homes for a break, and for a shower, or to vi...
Source: EPMonthly.com - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Source Type: news