Nine critically ill but stable patients were taken from a hospital in Zaporizhzhya in the south-east of the country to two medical facilities developed jointly by MSF and Ukrainian Railways for the referral of seriously injured patients. A dedicated medical carriage was transferred to the main referral hospital in Lviv. The patient was accompanied by a team of nine MSF. This is the first short-range medical train, and the MSF team is developing a larger and more highly medicalized referral train. The origin of the train comes after a medical assessment by MSF in Ukraine showed that there was an urgent need for a safe and fast way to transport seriously injured patients in order to reduce the burden on hospitals in war-torn areas.
Dr. Liao, an experienced paediatrician with MSF Ukraine's Medical Response Team, tells her what part of the process she was involved in assessing the patient's condition and making sure they were in a stable state during the trip. 1 Image credit: Doctors Special Database Without Borders On Tuesday, March 29, we visited Zaporozhye and met with the local district health director. We said that if he needed anything from us, we would love to hear from him. He said he had heard a story about a medical transfer train that he was intrigued by, and that he had patients who needed to be referred. arrow_forward_iosunderstand more Powered by GliaStudio We said,
"Okay, let's go see your patient." Most of the patients we saw were in Mariupol, or were injured trying to escape from Mariupol. A patient with an open fracture had a large wound and both legs were drained with negative pressure. The child is in fairly stable condition, but in serious condition. Of course, it is reasonable to reduce the number of hospitalized patients in hospitals close to the front line to increase the supply of hospital beds. But we need to ensure that patients are moved to places where the same, if not better, level of care is available. We just want to make sure this is safe for everyone.