One year on - how we have managed to help ukraine.
I cannot believe it has been one year since I pushed off from Gran Canaria in a six-metre rowing boat! Time really has flown since I made a landfall in Barbados 96 gruelling days later.
I wanted to thank you personally again for your support of our Ukraine medical charity Ukrops, and send you a little update about the situation on the ground and how your money has been spent. My initial intention was to source a medical kit for the frontline stabilisation facilities - mobile units operating from basements and other sheltered areas about 10-15 kilometres from the frontlines where wounded soldiers are brought in for initial "damage control" interventions to then be transported up the evacuation chain for more definitive surgeries and then a rehabilitation.
In fact, the reality on the ground is very different from 3-4 years ago, the main difference being the dominance of drone warfare. There is currently no well-defined frontline, but rather a "fuzzy" greyzone about 20 miles in diameter dominated by FPV drones dropping their deadly load on whatever moves on the ground. Russians see any medical facilities, or in fact, anything with a red cross on it, either stationary or mobile as "legitimate targets". As a result, many stabilisation facilities get destroyed along with all the vital equipment omn a regular basis. The life cycle of those units is very short. The Ukrainian MOD is acutely aware of the problem and has a budget signposted for maintaining the primary combat care facilities which along with various military charities provides a reasonably good supply of medical kit, which ensures that those field hospitals are well equipped. This does not compensate for a heavy loss of lives and limbs among military medics, but ensures that they have most of the things that they need to save lives.
We have managed to buy a rapid blood and fluid transfusion pump called "Belmont" which allows to transfuse warm fluids intravenously at rates of up to 1000 ml/minute. This is a vital life-saving piece of kit in major haemorhage as surgeons are trying to "close the tap". We have also bought 300+ sets/disposable packs that go with it and which will save lives of as many patients. It has all been successfully delivered to a Kharkiv hospital (see a photo attached).
We have also bought 1000 tourniquets which will be distributed among several SOF units operating in the southern Ukraine. Unfortunately, there is still a problem of cheap low-quality tourniquets, that do more harm than good and our shipment of high NATO-standard ones has been most welcome.
We have also sent a few trays of Orthofix external fixators, power drills and surgical headlights (see photos attached) to my good friend Viktor, a paediatric trauma surgeon working in the Dnipro regional centre. Ex fixes are a mainstay of treating open blast injuries where wounds get infected early and "traditional" metal plating does not work. I have just received a photo of our kit being used in a 13-year old girl who jumped off the window in a suicide attempt. She is doing well, but that case illustrates the fact that the war kills in so many ways...
We have also sent surgical power drills and headlights to the Viktor’s paediatric trauma team in Dnipro.
We have responded to several direct requests for specific kit, like sterile ultrasound probe covers for performing nerve blocks in a rehab centre for amputees in Lviv. We have sent 300 of those to them which will allow to provide long-term pain relief to amputees recovering in their centre.
Those are just examples to illustrate our "modus operandi" - we are a small charity, but are able to make a palpable difference on the ground because of our personal connections and an intimate knowledge of the ever-changing situation.
I went to Kyiv at the end of September where I talked about my row at an annual medical conference. I also handed over a Ukrainian flag that I was flying on my boat, to my medical friends and it is now proudly displayed at a big conference room at one of Kyiv's large regional hospitals that I worked at two years ago. I am attaching a short video documenting that moment.
Thanks again for your support. I have been touched by it on a deep human level.
You can donate to our charity Ukrops so we could continue supporting our Ukrainian medical collegues in a meaningful way.Follow me and be part of the journey as I prepare to row the Atlantic 2025
Leo Krivskiy 💙💛
