On Saturday, a team operating today on the Palanca border between Ukraine and Moldova identified long queues on the Ukrainian side and requested to enter to see if there were refugees that required medical attention inside the border. Vicky Tiferet, who was one of the volunteers with United Hatzalah who was stationed at the border spoke about what she found inside.

Vicky together with Dr. Shaham and Liat Weiss treat the patient in the van after he crossed the border 1024x501 1
Vicky together with Dr. Shaham and Liat Weiss treat the patient in the van after he crossed the border

“We entered with a bag full of medical supplies. As soon as we passed, we joined a local ambulance crew that had been stationed there who greeted us warmly.
They told us that they were waiting for a vehicle from a volunteer organization that was supposed to pick up and evacuate a 50-year-old man who had suffered 2 strokes and was also suffering multiple pressure ulcers on his legs and lower back. However, the ambulance team said that the organization in question had not responded for several hours.”

The man reached the border with his family members and was brought on a stretcher.

“They told us that they came from Mykolaiv and spoke of the horrors that they saw on the Ukrainian side of the border,” Vicky added. “They said that they made it to their car inside the city under fire from rocket barrages and that they crawled on the ground to get to the car, and everyone was shaking in fear.”

Vicky and Dr. Shaham crossing the border 1024x768 2
Vicky and Dr. Shaham crossing the border

Vicky, together with Dr. Roi Shaham and Nurse Liat Weiss who had accompanied her, took the man out on the stretcher and got permission from the border guards to allow the United Hatzalah vehicle into the border crossing to carry out the patient. “We transferred the patient with a blanket to the vehicle that arrived and took him for medical treatment,” Vicky said.

Vicky and Dr. Shaham discussing the situation with the local ambulance team 768x1024 1
Vicky and Dr. Shaham discussing the situation with the local ambulance team

“Together we disinfected the wounds and changed the man’s bandages. We then gave the couple medication for immediate use, and they told us that the rising tension/fighting made it difficult for the patient to obtain his medication for the past month. This put his life at risk, and we were seeing the evidence of it in front of us. Without our intervention, the man’s situation would have continued to deteriorate and he would have required hospitalization. I asked the couple where they were headed and they told me that their children had moved to a refugee camp in Germany at the beginning of the war. After a short stay in Moldova, the couple is headed to Germany to join their children. Now, with continued care and using the medications we gave them, they will be able to make it.”

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