Kyiv, 14 October 2014 – “30% of injured servicemen in the ATO zone die due to non-provision of in-time qualified medical aid as field hospitals and hospitals are located far off the first frontline causing violation of the so-called principle of “golden hour” – timeframe when the injured needs to be immediately transported to the doctor or to the operating room,” informed Gennadiy Druzenko, Head of supervisory council of the project “First volunteer mobile hospital named after Mykola Pyrohov” at a briefing in the Ukraine Crisis Media Center. According to Druzenko the concept of the volunteer mobile hospital is an adaptation of the US MASH system (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital). Introduction of MASH in US army allowed to achieve saving 97% of casualties in the combat zone brining qualified medical aid close to the frontline.
Main characteristics of such mobile medical brigades is they can be placed in 30-50 km from the frontline, such field hospitals are being set up within 30 minutes, do not require any special mounting efforts, speed of such “miraculous system” is 50-km /hour, it accept the injured from the 80-km combat zone. The hospital’s main value is if there are 3 full-fledged medical brigades available 10 people can be operated within an hour.
Mobile field hospital consists of the triage module, operating room, bandaging room, reanimation module and the staff tent. The medical team includes an ophthalmologist, physician, surgeon, intensive care physician, triage team triaging the injured according to the doctors’ profile, nurses and security. Equipment includes constructions that become functional in 3-5 minutes, allow to accommodate up to 20 operated patients and have 5 places to conduct surgery.
The mobile brigade is equipped with a mobile operating room, treatment bandaging room and evacuation transport (offroader). Full autonomy of the hospital is achieved due to the diesel power station, the light-sized drilling unit for artesian wells and the heating system.
According to Druzenko full cost of the American-type mobile hospital is UAH 80 million, the volunteers’ task is to create its budget option. At the cost of UAH 160 thousand donated by benefactors URAL evacuation vehicles were renovated, UAH 250 thousand were spent to equip the vehicles.
To help equip the mobile hospital for the military in the ATO zone donate on the project’s web site: www.medbat.org.ua