Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital

Kyiv, March 31, 2015 — On Hromadske Radio, PFVMH Board of a Trustees Chairman Gennadiy Druzenko tells about how the mobile hospital works; how much time it requires to set up an operation room and other structures; how they provide medical aid to the civil population and how it changes their attitude to the authorities in Kyiv; about the necessity to transfer what the state is unable to manage efficiently into the hands of community and business; and about efficient allocation of public resources.

Listen to on the Hromadske Radio site (in Ukrainian).

The 5th Channel’s news report posted on YouTube on Mar. 29, 2015

A US-model battle stress prevention drill for warriors, volunteers and medics. The instructors’ task is to build strong psychological protection in a warrior. The drill lasts four days and goes at a furious pace. (Video clip in Ukrainian)

Vinnytsya, Mar. 26, 2015 — In the Vinnytsya Pirogov National Medical University, the All-Ukrainian Council for Protection of Patient Rights and Safety and the educational institution signed the Memorandum of Cooperation within the framework of the Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital project.

The Memorandum was signed by University Rector Vasyl Moroz and Council Vice President Yevhen Nayshtetik. The Governmental Commissioner for Ethnonational Policy, PFVMH Board of Trustees Chairman Gennadiy Druzenko, also put his signature to the document.
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Kyiv, Mar. 21, 2015 — Artemivsk Mayor Oleksiy Reva sent a letter to the PFVMH Board of Trustees Chairman, Governmental Commissioner for Ethnonational Policy Gennadiy Druzenko, thanking for his assistance and ponderable contribution to healthcare in this Donetsk Oblast city.

In this difficult time for our country, your activities together with the PFVMH embody all the best qualities of a person! Thank you for your human cordiality and sensitivity to the people who are badly in need of assistance, the letter reads.

Commenting on the letter, Gennadiy Druzenko emphasized on the great importance of the fact that both local people and the municipal authorities perceived the PFVMH as not only a volunteer medical unit for backing Ukraine’s Armed Forces medical service but also sincere support for local medical practitioners and assistance to citizens. Eventually, each examination, operation or just humanitarian aid to the local citizens that our hospital provides is one more little stone laid into the firm foundation of a new united Ukraine we are all dreaming of and fighting for, he said.

The Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital has been working in Artemivsk since Feb. 11, 2015, based on the Central Raion Hospital within the framework of the second and the current third missions, the latter continuing since Mar. 6. Over this period, the medical volunteers have carried out 74 evacuations, treated 86 therapeutic patients, and conducted 18 surgical operations.

Not a single fatal case.

PFVMH Board of Trustees Chairman Gennadiy Druzenko presents an exhibition of classic style icons painted on used ammunition boxes from the frontlines in Eastern Ukraine.

The icons painted on ammo boxes brought immediately from the Anti-Terrorist Operation zone have a profound symbolical character. In fact, such an icon symbolizes the process of transformation of death, which these boxes carried inside, into life, said Druzenko.

According to the artists, they will donate part of receipts from the sale to the PFVMH.

Kyiv, Mar. 13, 2015 — The Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital (PFVMH) is launching its third mission. However, its further operation needs support, which has been lately narrowing, PFVMH Board of Trustees Chairman Gennadiy Druzenko said at a briefing in the Ukraine Crisis Media Center.

Part of the hospital’s volunteers are already in Popasna, Luhansk Oblast, and provide care to both servicemen and civilians, being based on the city’s Railroad Hospital. At that hospital employs, the head physician has in subordination three doctors and three nurses, whereas in Popasna alone, according to the last census, 22,000 residents, and in the Popasna Raion, 50,000. So one can judge on the demand for volunteer medics even not being a medical professional, Druzenko explained.

The PFVMH is a unique project performing a complete cycle – both providing care in mobile operating rooms and carrying out evacuation.
Its second mission, which lasted from March 6 to February 6, was near Artemivsk, Donetsk Oblast – on the Debaltsevo Foothold. Thanks to the volunteers, vascular surgeons in particular, limbs were saved for a great number of warriors.
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