AT THE SAMARITAN’S PURSE EMERGENCY FIELD HOSPITAL, EXCELLENCE IN CARE CREATES MOMENTS FOR THE BEST MEDICINE – ETERNAL HOPE IN JESUS CHRIST.

Samaritan’s Purse has deployed an Emergency Field Hospital in Lviv, Ukraine, and also a Medical Stabilisation Point at the train station nearby to care for those trying to escape the war. The initial patients arrived on 14th March.

Our very first patient was a woman named Marina from Malyn, a city west of Kyiv… She fell and injured her arm while escaping into a basement/bomb shelter. She suffered for nine days before arriving at our field hospital after her travels. She cried tears of relief as one of our doctors told her: “We can fix this for you.”

The field hospital has two operating rooms, with capacity for 14 major surgeries or 30 minor surgeries per day. There are nearly 60 total inpatient beds, including four intensive care unit beds and four step-down beds. The emergency room can handle 100 patients per day. The facility also has a pharmacy and its own water and sanitation system.

Please help us to care for more Ukrainians

“So far we have been seeing a really wide variety of difficulties – patients with all kinds of medical, surgical, and psychological conditions. Many people fleeing their home cities have had to leave their treatment programmes and medication behind. We are trying, in a challenging environment, to meet these medical needs.”
Dr. Laura, a UK member of our Disaster Assistance Response Team.

NOT ALL WOUNDS ARE SO EASILY TREATED

Later a patient is rushed in gripping his chest and gasping for air. Samaritan’s Purse doctors and nurses slip into a well-trained rhythm, asking him about his symptoms, examining his vitals, running multiple tests – calming him with a hand on the arm and kind words amid a flurry of activity.

Through tears and panic he breathlessly tells them that his name is Oleg. He’s 47. He’d fled his hometown in eastern Ukraine. There were bombs and shelling in his neighbourhood.

He came alone, but not because he wanted to. Just days before his arrival at our Emergency Field Hospital in Lviv, he watched in disbelief through his front window as a missile strike punched into civilian targets near his home. He watched his neighbour’s home collapse.

He learned that the attack had killed friends and family. In an instant, his life changed. When he walked through the zippered doorway of our hospital, he was clearly in distress – but not merely physically.

When Oleg’s tests came back, they confirmed what the doctor already suspected – Oleg’s heart is strong and healthy. It was a panic attack. Not a heart attack.

The trauma of the war had caught up to him – the horror and grief of what he’d seen and lost manifested in physical symptoms and now he couldn’t speak their names – the names of those the war had stolen from him.

They were beloved relatives and friends. Oleg didn’t need medicine. He needed peace. He needed hope.

Since the opening of our field hospital on March 14 and at our other medical intervention sites in Lviv and in southern Ukraine, our doctors and nurses have met many such patients who are grief-stricken and facing futures without loved ones and without hope.

As our teams provide the highest standard of medical care, they never forget that they are doing their work in Jesus’ Name because only He can provide restoration to their hearts and lives.

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association chaplains also are working alongside our medical teams to provide comfort and spiritual support for suffering patients like Oleg.

Healing Through Hope

A chaplain named Vitaliy introduced himself to Oleg.

“My soul is in pain,” Oleg told Vitaliy.

Vitaliy listened, bearing witness as Oleg tried to tell the story filled with so much grief. Vitaliy knew it would be impossible to make sense of the deaths of war. Vitaliy understands. From Irpin, a city near Kiev, some pieces of Oleg’s story mirrored his own. He’d also lost dear friends in the conflict.

“I know that only God can give you peace, give you hope,” Vitaliy told Oleg, speaking gently and in their own language. Then he shared the Gospel with him, and later Oleg said had never heard it explained so simply.

Oleg wept. But those tears of grief and panic had turned to tears of relief. He’d acknowledged that what Vitaliy had told him was true – that God was the only source of true peace and true hope. In his grief, he also had prayed to receive Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour.

Before coming to the Emergency Field Hospital, he knew about God, but this was the first time that he had made a genuine, personal connection with God. It was powerful medicine for him.

“When you pray,” Oleg said, “It’s more important for your soul than pills or any medication.”

The wounds of this war are deep, and Oleg’s healing is only beginning, but he left our hospital with something much better than modern medicine. He left with true hope for the future because of his new-found faith in Jesus Christ.

“Thank you for coming here to this dangerous place to help us,” he said.

Samaritan’s Purse continues to provide medical care to displaced people in Ukraine devastated by the effects of war.

• Since 24th February, Samaritan’s Purse has actively served more than 25,000 refugees and internally displaced persons across Ukraine, Poland, Romania, and Moldova.
• An Emergency Field Hospital and three medical clinics have received more than 1,000 patients in Lviv and in southern Ukraine.
• A fifth Samaritan’s Purse airlift has delivered additional medical supplies and other relief aboard our DC-8 for distribution in Ukraine.
• More than 3 million refugees have fled their homes for other parts of Ukraine. Millions are displaced internally.

Find out more about our work in Ukraine

Please pray for Ukraine. Pray for peace and an end to the conflict. And pray that God will use our teams to bring His hope to the people who are suffering.