Aiding Ukraine in Coping With Critically War-Wounded

"Many of them have amputated legs or hands. Before the war, we had only civilian problems -- people who fall on the ground, break their leg -- not running from rockets."

"We always need blood donors."

"We have injuries we didn't have before. We need some doctors that worked in Afghanistan, in all the hot points." 

"We need doctors that know everything about war trauma, doctors who can  help us with different kinds of it."

Zoriana, hospital administrator, Ukraine

"We can use it everywhere. In the field, in the hospital, in the emergency ambulance."

You don't need a supply of oxygen, or even electricity. You can use it for a few hours [on battery]."

Dr. Yurii, anesthesiologist, Ukraine

"If there isn't medevac capability available, if the country doesn't have control of the skies, the patient may have to be taken care of at the point of injury for an extended period of time."

"This device can be used wherever the war fighter is injured."

"Obviously, there was a dire need."

Lesley Gouldie, CEO, Thornhill Medical Company, Toronto

Thornhill Medical’s portable life-support system shown in a simulated battlefield scene. The gear mimics the capability of an ICU and can be used in almost any setting. The Toronto firm donated some of the equipment to Ukraine, where it is being used to treat war casualties. Photo by Thornhill Medical

A new medical system named MOVES SLC combines an oxygen-conserving ventilator, an oxygen 'concentrator', equipment for monitoring vital signs and suction for clearing airways, all in a 'rugged' 18-kilogram package about the size of a small golf bag. The concentrator is one of its key features, creating oxygen by absorbing air and removing nitrogen, eliminating the need to carry about bulky oxygen tanks. Entirely battery-powered.

What better place to have this kind of portable, life-saving equipment than a battlefield? The second most vital place would be a hospital suddenly immersed in the need to admit battle-injured servicemen

during an all-consuming, violent altercation between nations, one determined to destroy the second, the attacked nation even more determined to stop the existential threat and drive back the attackers.

Now, a major hospital in Lviv, coping with the impact of Russia's Ukraine invasion has been supplied with state-of-the-art, technically advanced hospitals-in-a-bag to simplify and modernize their critical war-trauma equipment in service to the thousands they have been treating over the last five months, both civilian and military.

A Toronto-area medical devices company has donated unique cutting-edge technology to the hospital in a humanitarian gesture to make it easier for hospital medical personnel to cope with the unprecedented number of emergency cases, and restore hope for the future of the seriously wounded. Samples of its portable life-support systems were flown by Thornhill Medical to the intensive-care unit of the hospital.

Each single unit is capable of providing most of the treatment and monitoring of an intensive care unit. The single unit incorporating these many functions can be slung over someone's shoulder. In addition, similar, on-the-go anaesthesia machines were also supplied by Thornhill with gear allowing health workers to provide advanced life support and surgery in areas where such services would be impossible, otherwise.

 

Thornhill Medical’s portable life support system in a Ukrainian ambulance. The gear mimics the capability of an ICU and can be used in almost any setting. The Toronto firm donated some of the unique equipment to Ukraine, where it’s being used to treat war casualties. Photo by Handout

 

This transference of modern medical equipment to Ukraine emphasizes its broad needs under a situation of all-out war. Weaponry supplied by Ukraine's allies is vital for its survival against a far-larger and better-equipped attacker, but Ukraine is also in dire need of medical assistance to enable it to cope with a huge burden and responsibility, to save countless lives of those injured by an incessant rain of bombs and artillery.

Co-founder of Thornhill, Dr.Joe Fisher, an anesthesiologist at Toronto's University Health Network, has urged the government of Canada to place greater emphasis on providing medical assistance to Ukraine. "If we flagged that we were sending  his type of equipment [as opposed to war machines], we would be the envy and the honoured of the world. Why would we not do this?", he stated.

The equipment has already been used elsewhere, purchased by the militaries of the U.S., Canada, Australia, Israel and elsewhere. In the Donbas region at the height of fighting, some 100 Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 300 injured each day of the conflict. Training was provided to hospital workers in Ukraine by a team of Thornhill employees who accompanied the machines.

Thornhill Medical’s portable life support system in Ukraine. The gear mimics the capability of an ICU and can be used in almost any setting. The Toronto firm donated some of the unique equipment to Ukraine, where it’s being used to treat war casualties. Photo by Handout