Irish doctors return from teaching trauma care in Kyiv

Five Irish medical professionals have returned to Ireland from Ukraine after teaching a trauma aid course for first responders in Kyiv last week.

The course - the 11th edition organised by the UCD Ukraine Trauma Project since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022 - gave participants a grounding in delivering vital medical aid to trauma casualties.

Over the past four years, more than 1,000 Ukrainian first responders have been trained as part of the project, spearheaded by three senior members of the UCD School of Medicine: Emeritus Professor Gerard Bury, Professor Chris Fitzpatrick and Dr Lyudmyla Zakharchenko, all of whom travelled to Kyiv to teach the latest course.

"Shortly after the full-scale invasion, from talking to colleagues, we identified in Ukraine the absence of certain advanced trauma care skillsets at the frontline among first responders," Professor Bury told RTÉ News last week from an undisclosed location where the trauma care course was being taught.

Their time in the Ukrainian capital occurred during a period of intensified Russian drone and rocket attacks on the city's energy grid, meaning that some of the classes had to be taught in challenging conditions.

"We lost light, heat, internet. The group of trainees are extremely resilient people. They simply took out their torches and continued the work," said Prof Bury.

Among last week's 120 participants were combat medics, civilian paramedics, police officers, doctors and nurses, with groups of 30 students being taught the intensive trauma course each day. Many had journeyed from frontline areas.

A key element of the course focused on participants learning how to use a medical drill on the bone of a trauma patient (in this case, 3D-printed bones) in order to insert a catheter and quickly deliver tranexamic acid.

The drug prevents blood clots from breaking down and is a procedure used by Irish paramedics in situations with trauma-related casualties.

For frontline responders in Ukraine, spending up to 30 minutes trying to find a vein on a casualty's arm in darkness or extreme low light is not an option when they are trying to save someone's life.

"If the interventions built around tranexamic acid are not provided within that two-hour window after injury, the chance of death increases significantly," said Prof Bury.

Two advanced paramedics, Linda O'Rourke from Ennis and Ben Heron from Dublin, were part of last week's team of volunteers, and Shane Leahy, a Limerick entrepreneur and founder of Irish charity One4Humanity, who oversaw a complicated logistics operation and delivered hundreds of trauma first aid kits to Ukraine for the course.

To date, the project has received funding support from the Department of Foreign Affairs, HSE Global Health, the Irish Red Cross, UCD and private donors in Ireland amounting to approximately €2m, and is assisted on the ground by Ukraine's Serhi Prytula Charity Foundation.

A support team of up to 50 volunteers at home help to acquire and pack the drugs.

Training materials such as 3D-printed bones are also donated.

"We have had people who've done the course, and then we find out subsequently that they've died," said Professor Fitzpatrick, via video call last week from the training venue in Kyiv.

"Many of our participants have lost close ones, and people come here injured. We've had people who come in IV [intravenous] lines," said the retired consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist.

"We had a woman here who was originally on our course, and I just happened to find out that her husband was killed on the front line a couple of days prior and [she] hadn't even recovered the body. And yet she was a combat medic attending the course, and then she came back as a trainer".

Another course participant had lost a limb in combat, recalled Prof Bury.

For Dr Zakharchenko, each visit back to Ukraine during wartime brings a flood of emotions.

Originally from northwestern Ukraine, she has lived in Ireland for the past 25 years, working as a consultant neonatologist and paediatrician with Children's Health Ireland, and is now an Irish citizen.

"It's very emotional because all my student life was in Kyiv," said Dr Zakharchenko.

"Even if one life will be saved because of our training, because of this procedure, I will still come regardless of what's going on".

Since last year, the trauma course has included neonatal resuscitation.

"We signed a collaboration with one of the medical universities in Kyiv, and we are going to continue with an exchange of education and support for medical students and doctors as much as we can," said Dr Zakharchenko.

Last December, during an official visit to Dublin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukraine's First Lady Olena Zelenska, presented the three professors with Ukraine's Golden Heart Award in recognition of their humanitarian work in Ukraine.

"He thanked us for what we did and he advised us strongly to continue with it," said Prof Fitzpatrick recounting their meeting with Ukraine's president.

All three professors were adamant that they would return to Kyiv to teach the course until the war ends.

"We are committed to continue this for the duration," said Prof Fitzpatrick.