From: CNN World — Exclusive by Christiane Amanpour, Madalena Araújo and Ivana Kottasová,
Olga is running around the intensive care unit, constantly checking her patients’ oxygen levels, adjusting their medication and noting their vitals. She’s working fast, but even at her busiest, the nurse anesthetist doesn’t hesitate to pause to adjust a pillow or blanket, and make sure the injured soldiers in her care are as comfortable as possible amid the constant rocking and rumbling.
A sergeant in the Ukrainian military, she is attending to some of its sickest patients. It’s a busy job – and she is doing it on a speeding train.
CNN gained exclusive access to a medical evacuation train used by the Ukrainian army to transport the wounded from near the frontlines to hospitals around this large country. This infirmary on wheels – one of several crisscrossing the nation – is now a key part of Ukraine’s healthcare system, which has been highly depleted by two and half years of Russia’s brutal war. It is operating in complete secrecy, which is why CNN is not revealing its route or identifying its staff by their full names.
Most cities in eastern Ukraine are struggling to find enough hospital beds to accommodate the almost constant stream of casualties from the frontlines. But freeing up space requires that even the sickest patients, many of them unconscious, are transferred to far-flung places, often hundreds of miles away.
Long ambulance journeys are too risky for people in a critical condition, and flying a helicopter is too dangerous given Russia’s air superiority over Ukrainian skies.
The train is a lifesaver.
Voice of Ukraine 