On February 24, 2022, the world watched together as Russia launched a full-scale assault on its western neighbor Ukraine. We saw women and children fleeing for their lives to nearby Poland, carrying nothing but the clothes on their backs. On televisions, we watched as men took up arms to protect their country from the invasion, while neighbors made Molotov cocktails in their kitchens to throw at passing tanks.
Local paramedic/RN, Dean Hart, saw the early days of the invasion through a different lens than the rest of us.
He knew he could help the fight.
He knew the call would come.
He knew the people of Ukraine would need him.
You see, Dean is part of several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that organize medical teams for battle fronts and natural disasters. He’s seen devastation from hurricanes, floods, global pandemics, and yes, even battlefields. Before he trained as a paramedic, he was a United States Marine who saw front-lines in Somalia and Iraq. Now, as a Remote Expedition Medic, he travels the world wherever people are in need. He’s worked in hospitals in COVID-19 hotspots and patched hurricane survivors.
He’s saved lives.
And he was ready to do the same for the people of Ukraine.
When the call did come, Dean was on an airplane bound for the war-torn country in just three days.
“I was put in charge of a team of three other medics, two translators, and a local driver and we taught what we call TCCC (Tactical Combat Casualty Care) to Ukrainian soldiers,” Dean recalls of the five weeks he spent in the country.
Dean and his team mostly provided training for the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Force, the country’s equivalent of our Military Reserves Units. He says that while the Force was skilled in battle tactics, their combat medical training was antiquated.
“The Defense Force were the soldiers that pushed the initial assault of the Russians out when they came down through Belarus to take the capital of Kyiv,” he says. “These Reservists, who have nothing, no gear, held the Russians there and stopped them from taking the capital early on.”
“But, they were still in an older mindset for putting tourniquets on in combat,” he says. “For our U.S. Military, we’ve had 20 years to start perfecting battlefield medicine and we’ve kept our casualty rates low because we’ve become really good at putting tourniquets on, packing wounds, stopping the bleeding, and being able to give these guys a chance to get to higher levels of care.”
Even more, Dean says that the soldiers lacked the equipment they needed to provide basic combat care, or for the battle in general.
“They didn’t even have a basic first aid kit, much less a tourniquet.”
“They’ve been issued a rifle and they might have two or three magazines for it,” he said. “Our basic soldiers over here have more than some of the elites in the Ukrainian army.”
“The absolute shortage of equipment is sad and terrifying at the same time.”
But, even without basic supplies, Dean says the fight continues. And, it extends from the top to the very bottom in the towns of Ukraine.
“The babushkas, the grandmas in the villages who can sew, have come together and they are making soldiers vests to carry equipment in,” he says. “Everybody, the whole towns, are coming together and hand-making equipment. In the town squares, they’ll hang these giant nets and people will come and sit for hours through the day and tie burlap to create camo nets they need to drag over the tanks.”
“Some of the equipment they make is amazing. It looks better than what we buy here.”
“It’s a community coming together to help ward off this invasion from the Russians.”
Dean says that the soldiers they taught were absolutely grateful for the training that his team was able to provide.
“They were some of the best classes I’ve taught, because not one eye was darting around or looking at their cell phone,” he recalls. “They are there. They know that within a week or two they could be applying this.”
“The NGO I was with gave each soldier we taught an individual first aid kit like we issue here in the U.S. with the tourniquet and wound-packing gear. Their only first aid kit was what we gave them.”
Even despite the lack of training, dwindling resources, and little or no equipment, Dean says what he witnessed in the Ukraine was inspiring. And, he got to see it up close and personal.
“There is no lack of will to fight from these guys,” he says. “They are ready to go with what they have.”
“Most of these people that we were teaching were on standby, which means they have a date they are leaving to go to the battlefront.”
“You start getting to know them. They are in their hometowns where they invite you home to eat with their families. You are interacting with the families as they are packing up to send their wives and children to Poland to get out of the Ukraine until this is all over with.”
“These people are fighting for their very existence. You’re getting to interact with them and their families and their children. Our translators were with us every day and each of them were married with young children that they had sent off to live with relatives. One of them, her husband had just volunteered and we trained him medical to send him to the front.”
“It became a lot more personal than most other places I have been.”
For Dean, it’s easy to empathize with the struggles of the Ukrainian families he saw torn apart by the war on their country. When he was there, he was separated again from his nine-year-old son, Ethan, at home.
“The taking off gets a little more difficult each time, especially now that he’s getting older because he can tell me how he feels,” Dean says of his son. “I try to sit down and explain to him that there are bad people in the world and people need help and that’s what I feel called to do.”
“I try to explain to him as much as I can and hope that he gets an understanding and sees what I’m trying to do.”
Dean says that as Ethan becomes more aware of what his dad does for others in need, he sees the same urge to help growing in him.
“Lately he was asking me how I knew I wanted to be a Marine and how I knew I was going to be in the medical field,” he says. “And he said he wanted to do something to help the homeless. That’s the first time he’s said anything like that.”
“He’s a way better person than I am…he’s got this big heart.”
“I don’t push him toward anything, but I do talk to him all the time about traveling and seeing the world and being in places that are worse off than we are.”
“I tell him that what we need to do is go help.”
Going to help is what Dean does best. To quote him, like the Ukrainian people, he has no lack of will to fight for those in need.
And yet, while he knows that his new friends in Ukraine will need help like he was able to provide for years to come, he yearns for the day when he can visit them again.
Only this time, he hopes that it is peace that brings him there.
“We just recently celebrated our country’s independence and as I look at the many freedoms the people of my country take for granted, I would love one day to go back to Ukraine and see my friends there celebrate their own Independence Day,” he says.
“I would love to see their families reunited, their kids listening to fireworks instead of rocket attacks, and the flag of Ukraine flying as an independent country with no Russian occupation.”
“That,” he says, “is my wish for the people of Ukraine.”
“Slava Ukraini.”
