In the Second Medical Association of Lviv, emergency training for doctors from all over Ukraine is actively ongoing. Doctors from all over Ukraine come to the Mehad Emergency Medicine Simulation Training Center: Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Chernihiv. The courses are completely free for participants and are supported by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and La Chaîne de l’Espoir.
“The Mehad organization started working in Syria in 2011. Last year, when a full-scale war broke out in Ukraine, we realized that we had to be here. Professor Raphael Pitti, head of training programs at UOSSM France, founded a medical training center in Lviv. We have already trained more than 800 people and continue to do so. At first, I worked in Poland on the Ukrainian border, providing psychological help to Ukrainian women and children. But I really wanted to come to Ukraine to do more,” says Rachel Isolda, project manager of Mehad in Ukraine.
The instructors were trained at the European Institute of Medical Education in France – they are anesthesiologists, resuscitators, and trauma surgeons. The training was conducted by specialists who worked in many hot spots, in particular in Syria.
“We opened a training center in the Second Medical Association of Lviv, equipped a large number of mannequins to train Ukrainian doctors. These are civilian medics and people participating in medical evacuations, as well as military medics. At the end of August, we launched a course on ultrasound diagnostics (tactical ultrasound according to the FAST protocol). During this period, we trained 12 instructors, 8 of whom now work with us. We educated and taught about 800 cadets to work,” says Mykola Kopytchak, the medical representative of the Mehad company in Ukraine.
“Psychotrauma for specialists” is another training center course jointly with a French university. Two such courses have already been held, training 48 cadets. Now they are preparing a course for medical professionals who are not psychotherapists, for doctors, for patients who have survived violence. In particular, Ukrainian trainers are currently being trained to launch such a course for Ukrainian doctors.
In January, the center started the course “Damage control in surgery”.
“When there are injuries to the abdominal cavity, chest, main vessels, heart injuries, our surgeons stop bleeding, perform various manipulations to help the patient get from the site of the injury to the nearest hospital for more qualified assistance (this period can last from 10 minutes to 2 days). We train surgeons to stop bleeding in combat conditions,” Mykola Kopytchak continues.
For traumatologists, there is a course on external fixation of the limbs (stabilization of the pelvis and external fixators of the upper and lower limbs). The plan is to train doctors to provide assistance with various types of chemical damage.
The simulation training center cooperates with the All-Ukrainian Resuscitation Council. The “Medevas” (medical evacuation) practical course is currently underway.
“We not only teach, but also provide devices on which people can then work. We donate 52 ultrasound sensors to hospitals in Ukraine: Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kherson regions, cities of Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Kyiv, Lviv. The sensor is connected via Wi-Fi to the phone, weighs 90 g. It is used both during patient transportation and in the conditions of a field military hospital, it does not require 220V,” said Mykola Kopytchak, the medical representative of the Mehad company in Ukraine.
We will remind you that the training center was created by the French and international medical and humanitarian non-governmental organization UOSSM France, together with the organization La chaine de l’espoir and with the support of the crisis center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France. The organization is responsible for providing emergency medical aid to the population affected by the war.
Contact person: Mykola, +38 067 970 43 28.