'Overwhelmed': Langford volunteer group sees impacts of war on Ukrainian medical system

A humanitarian team from Langford, B.C., has returned from a mission in western Ukraine where many people injured during the intense fighting in the east come for medical attention.

Now, the country's hospital system has become overwhelmed.

On the first day that the team was in the city of Lutsk, a public funeral procession for two fallen soldiers, killed while defending their country from the Russian invasion, was happening in a public square across from their hotel.

Events like that have become a weekly occurrence in Lutsk.

In a hospital blocks away, the Langford team, consisting of humanitarian Bob Beckett and Sooke School District board chair Ravi Parmar, met with a group of soldiers who survived their injuries.

The soldiers described some of their injuries, including being shot.

More than half of the patients in the hospital are soldiers who have vowed to fight on, returning to the frontlines once they heal.

"The hospital has become overwhelmed," said Aleksandr Dunar, director of the Volyn Regional Clinical Hospital.

Shattered bones, open wounds and shrapnel injuries are most common.

That hospital is where the injured, evacuated from heavy fighting in the east, come first for treatment.

"They’re doing between 100 and 200 patients a week," said Beckett. "Over 9,000 patients so far have been treated in this small regional hospital."

Just outside the city border is another hospital. This one is where the injured come to recover after being stabilized.

One man told the team he was injured and nearly killed while fighting in Soledar in eastern Ukraine when a drone dropped a grenade into the trench he was taking cover in.

"He got injured as a result of a grenade explosion," said another soldier named Andri.

Andri's injuries are more severe. He has lost a finger, has problems now with his hip and his left foot had to be amputated.

Ukrainian solider Andri is pictured.You would think the war would be over for him.

"He hopes to get a prosthetic foot to come back to the frontlines because he said there is a lot of work that has to be done here," said Andri, through the team's interpreter.

MATERNITY WARDS

Three hours away in a children’s hospital in southern Ukraine, more fallout can be seen from the ongoing war. This time it’s a maternity ward that is trying to cope.

"Pregnant women, they are giving birth much earlier than they are supposed to," said the hospital's medical director.

The director of the hospital says due to the constant stresses of the ongoing war, his hospital is averaging at least one pre-mature delivery per day.

"They lack the places and the spaces," said the director.

The Langford team was in Ukraine to deliver medical supplies and other aid as the country's hospital system struggles to keep up with the war.