Ukrainian Pediatrician Refugee Helps Sick Kids in Kyiv Through Phone

A Ukrainian pediatrician refugee is providing care for children in Kyiv, the Ukraine capital through phone. He is also helping the children of refugees in the Ukraine-Hungary border, where he and his family is staying now with his relatives.

The doctor, whose name has been omitted to protect his and his family's safety, is one of the millions of Ukrainians forced to flee their homes after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24, as per Today.

Helping refugees and patients in Kyiv through phone

The doctor said they are staying at a relative's place not far from the Ukraine-Hungary border, where many people from the east and north regions of Ukraine are fleeing. The family, the doctor and his wife, their two sons aged five and one,  said they spent nine hours getting through the mountain roads. The doctor added EU volunteers helped his family, providing them with cribs, diapers, baby food, and clothes.

Russian forces attacked his hospital in Kyiv, and he admited that there is no possibility of getting back to Kyiv. He planned to drive his family to safety, then return to Kyiv to care for patients and fight Russian soldiers if necessary.

However, he said the roads are impassable. Hence, he decided to join the border as a medical volunteer, providing assistance and coordination for refugees with kids.

He also cares for his patients in Kyiv, keeping in touch with them through online consultations. For now, he monitors ten families with sick kids by phone who are in bomb shelters with limited medicines. The families are suffering from dehydration, croup, and fever. Three kids are suffering from gasoline vapor poisoning because their family was driving with canisters in the car for prolonged periods. One of his patients, a four-year-old, had a panic attack.

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He said he fears for his patients, family members, and friends who are still in Kyiv and he remains determined to care for the children there in any way he can.

Netizens in Ukraine said they need water and food badly and listed specific drugs such as dopamine, hidazepam, magnesia, and sodium chloride. They also said syringes, flashlights, batteries, and blankets are badly in short supply.

For now, the doctor works with medical professionals in coordinating food, water, clothing, and medical supply drop-offs on a secure-communication channel that he can access through his phone. 

Hospitals being bombed

Before the refugee doctor left Ukraine, Russians assaulted his hospital. In the morning, the soldiers found roofs and walls with specific marks that glow in the dark, similar to marks in places where the bomb attacks were.

On February 24, at least four people were killed after a hospital in Ukraine was hit by a Russian bomb.

At the Ohmadyt Children's Hospital in Kyiv, the young patients are being cared for in the hospital basement. On Monday, the hospital's chief surgeon, Dr. Volodymyr Zhovnir, had around 200 patients, a marked decrease from its usual 600 patients.

The 200 patients cannot survive medical treatment at home and could not survive without medication, treatment, and workers, the chief surgeon said in Anadolu Agency.

The hospital stocked a month's worth of medication but needed food for newborn babies.

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