Ukraine Diary
Visiting Zhytomyr Hospital
Medical equipment delivered and joyfully received!
Editor’s Note: In February, Working Nurse launched The Zhytomyr Hospital Challenge to purchase medical equipment for a hospital in Ukraine. This fundraising campaign was a huge success. In June, Olena Svetlov and I traveled to Ukraine to complete our mission.
I share excerpts from my journal in this Ukraine Diary online series.
Feeling a bit dazed after today’s events.
At 9 a.m. this morning, I was driving with Olena to Zhytomyr Hospital, considering all the things that could go wrong. Would the medical supplier arrive with the van packed with sealed boxes, as we had instructed? Would it be the right equipment? Would everything be there?
Would meeting “our friends” — the moniker we gave the nurses and doctors with whom we’d been communicating for the past many months — go well? Would they even show up?
No need to worry: It all went off perfectly. The supplier was waiting in the parking lot, next to the van loaded with boxes. We recognized Vitaly and Alina immediately from their photos. Although we’d never met, it was a joyful reunion, full of smiles, embraces, and even tears throughout the day.
Vitaly, a surgeon and our main contact at the hospital, is taller than expected. He excused a yawn by telling us he is a new father and the baby isn’t sleeping. Alina, the lab nurse, greeted us with a hug, her spirit as warm as her magenta scrubs. She is the recipient of the prized new hematology analyzer, sure to transform her workload. She was beaming.
Olena took charge of the audit. Armed with a clipboard and pen, she checked each item against the invoice, while supplier Oleksandr sliced open the boxes. A small crowd gathered in the parking lot around the open van. The mood was festive. Everything was there and accounted for.
Zhytomyr Hospital is a 19th-century, sienna-colored stone structure with white trim around decorative moldings and curved gables. We followed our friends on a tour of the hospital, whose interior has tall windows and high ceilings, and is full of light.
The supplier began delivering boxes on a dolly to various areas of the hospital. In the rehabilitation center, the head doctor opened the flaps of a large carton and flashed us a broad smile. This particular machine will treat tourniquet syndrome — the nerve damage caused to a patient’s hand when an arm tourniquet is left on longer than two hours.
Later, he texted a photo to Olena of the patient already using this piece of equipment.
I sat down on a bench and let the gravity of the moment settle over me. Nine months ago, Olena and I first met at a Ukrainian restaurant in Los Angeles and had the “a-ha” moment of doing a charity project for Zhytomyr Hospital: “We’ll host a fundraiser! We’ll send them medical equipment!”
Like many endeavors that start with great enthusiasm, executing the project was considerably harder than expected. But being here now, every bit of effort was well worth it.
I’m feeling a deep gratitude to the people who believed in this cause, generously donated, and made this extraordinary outcome possible. And kudos to Olena — the Angel of Zhytomyr — for devoting her life to giving back.
Other Ukraine Diary entries:
Planes, Trains, and Eight Stuffed Suitcases
Resistance at the Kyiv Museum of History
Air Sirens and Bomb Shelters
First Aid Kits for Police Officers
Bucha
The Ballet Studio
Animal Rescue
The story from the Feb. 21 issue that launched The Zhytomyr Hospital Challenge.
