Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital

Artemivsk, Apr. 25, 2015 — A week ago, the Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital had treated the 1000th patient since the beginning of its activities in the Anti-Terrorist Operation zone in December 2014. It happened during the fourth mission of the hospital in Eastern Ukraine.

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Lublin, Poland, Apr. 19, 2015 — The charitable event in the Polish city of Lublin launched the European tour in support of the Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital “Icons on Ammo Boxes: the Art that Turns Death into Life.”

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Interview with Gennadiy Druzenko, cofounder and Board of Trustees chairman of the Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital

By Kateryna Samoylenko

(Published on CENSOR.NET, updated. Photos: CENSOR.NET)

The “golden hour” is a key term in the military medicine. It means the time span during which qualified medical aid must be provided to a wounded warrior, and the vital functions of his body stabilized. As minutes pass, his chance for not only effective treatment of his wound but even the very survival gets slimmer. According to the chairman of the Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital Board of Trustees, Gennadiy Druzenko, 80% of fatalities in the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) result from failure to provide timely medical care. He says the reason for this is the lack of properly equipped hospitals (some having been destroyed or damaged) and skilled doctors, first and foremost surgeons, within dozens of kilometers from the battlefield. The Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital (PFVMH) was established in order to provide timely and effective medical aid to wounded warriors and civilian residents in the ATO zone. Mr. Druzenko explains the hospital’s structure and operation mode.

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Artemivsk, Apr. 12, 2015 — The Dnipropetrovsk Oblast National Defense Staff and volunteer regiment Dnipro-1 made a donation of medical equipment to the Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital.

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Kyiv, Apr. 8, 2015 — While the authorities are pondering over how to take Donbas out of the information vacuum and overcome the Russian propaganda, volunteers have locally opened up their own front, according to a story in Den.

For example, doctors of the Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital (PFVMH) are sure: you should persuade people in Donbas that Ukraine is ready to come to their help by deeds, not words.

Therefore, beside their main tasks — evacuate the wounded from battlefield and apply fist aid — the doctors also help peaceful citizens who come to see a doctor. It often happens that the volunteer physicians are the only ones local residents can count on.

Read the whole story on the Den site providing a detailed report on journalists’ visit to the PFVMH main base in Artemivsk, Donetsk Oblast (in Ukrainian).

Kyiv, Apr. 7, 2015 — Some 10 days ago we hosted a Livy Bereh journalist, Viktoria Herasymchuk, in our hospital in Artemivsk, Donetsk Oblast. She thoroughly interviewed the PFVMH volunteers and carefully recorded what she was told.

Read the Camo Scrubs story on LB.ua to find out how Viktoria saw our hospital (in Russian).

Kyiv, Apr. 6, 2015 — Having left its Kyiv Pushcha-Ozerna base just after the midnight, the PFVMH fourth mission have reached the Donetsk Oblast city of Artemivsk. Tomorrow they will take over from their predecessors the duty to save the bodies and heal the souls of both warriors and civilians injured in the war that has been lasting for nearly a year.

The volunteers left for Eastern Ukraine after ten-day training, a public prayer and shooting a remembrance photo on the stairs of our base.

The 5th Channel was most interested in our storehouse on wheels. (Video clip in Ukrainian)

Typically, media coverage of the PFVMH is either in Ukrainian or in Russian. Every report being of importance, the language of the detailed story on our hospital and our cooperation with the hospitallers on English-lingual UKRAINE TODAY certainly adds value.

Read and watch Frontline medics save lives on the UT site.

On Apr. 2, 2015, Ukrainska Pravda. Zhyttya published an interview with Gennadiy Druzenko, PFVMH Chairman of the Board of Trustees, conducted for the online publication by PFVMH volunteer Olena Maksymenko. Provided below is the introduction to the interview translated into English. The entire story in Ukrainian is also available on our site.

The Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital is a unique phenomenon. It is not similar to any of volunteer or state medical organizations, neither in its philosophy nor in its disposition.

Paramedic is one more word from the new era lexicon, which literally means near medicine. The hospital recruits as volunteers both professional medics and people without relevant education. However, with each of them it signs an agreement on month-long rotation, and for those employed, it arranges for an official business trip.

Before getting to the front, all of them, even professional doctors, undergo training. This is because work of a civilian medic in a warm sterile room, with a well-meshed team of assistants, differs essentially from the tasks of a military medic. Besides the provision of first aid, the volunteers are trained in safety rules in the case of shelling by MLRS, mortars, and tanks. They try falling out from vehicles on alarm, hitting the ground, and transporting a casualty lying down when there is a risk of fire.

PFVMH Board of Trustees Chairman Gennadiy Druzenko, one of the project’s initiators, tells about the history of his baby.

Read the entire story in Ukrainian…