As the Russian invasion of Ukraine rages on New Orleans physician Dr. MarkAlain Dery is serving as medical director to assist those in need of being medically evacuated from the war-torn country. Dery said he’s been in Ukraine for about three weeks now.
“So we are evacuating critically ill individuals from the frontline, providing critical care services for them. Getting them stabilized and moving them to hospitals. Usually Ukraine of Romania,” said Dery.
And because more and more Ukraine citizens have become targets of Russian soldiers, Dery is also helping by instituting an education process for everyday healthcare providers and the best way they can treat civilians who are severely injured in the conflict.
“As physicians, we are not trained in how to handle warfare, and street warfare specifically on civilians that’s just not something that we do,” said Dery.
As the conflict continues Dery said there are more and more documented cases of Ukrainian civilians who are being attacked by Russian soldiers along with evidence of war crimes.
Dery said top US trauma physicians are assisting by helping train doctors and nurses in Ukraine on how to respond to injuries usually found on a battlefield.
“But we’re adapting it for the kind of like more street-like medicine, for what would happen if you’re in a building that gets hit by a missile and now you have people who are crushed,” said Dery.
Dery said they are also training fire and police on how to treat injuries and creating short videos teaching civilians how to respond when someone is severely injured.
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