Nine doctors return from front lines of war in Ukraine, after horrific sights and a close call

By Marissa Perlman

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    CHICAGO (WBBM) — Nine Chicago doctors have returned home after going on the ground in Ukraine and Poland.

The doctors shared with CBS 2’s Marissa Perlman what they call the reality of war.

A 12-year-old boy named Timothee wanted to be photographed showing his injury – shrapnel to the arm. He was hurt in a Russian attack while in a car with his family, fleeing Ukraine.

His grandmother was killed.

“It appeared to be Russians and they started shooting at them – just like that,” said Rita Vaitauskaite, one of the nine medical providers with the MedGlobal team that is now back home in Chicago.

Vaitauskaite said the MedGlobal team helped transfer Timothee and his family to a hospital in Poland.

“That was just, you don’t even know what to say. Like I say, it’s just like, you want to give a hug – you’re crying.”

The group of doctors brought 167 pieces of luggage full of medical supplies to hospitals in Lviv, Ukraine and to refugees on the border in Poland. For five days, they treated as many children and women as they could.

They kept going even as air-raid sirens went off in Lviv, warning of an attack.

The doctors said their passion to save people’s lives is bigger than their fears of conflict.

“Thinking what people are going through right now is just heartbreaking,” Vaitauskaite said.

Dr. Zahar Sahloul, cofounder of MedGlobal, noted that this was the organization’s first medical trip to Ukraine. We spoke with Sahloul from the Gaza Strip, where he went straight to another medical call.

He said there were a few close calls for his team on the Ukraine mission. At one point, the doctors were forced inside a bunker with at least 50 other people – mostly women and children.

Sahloul said his team is worried most about what they have left behind, and the people they just can’t reach.

“Especially health care workers – they are traumatized by what they are witnessing; overwhelmed by the number of casualties,” Salhoul said. “I think everyone should know that this is a very barbaric war.”

Amazingly, two hours after this group from MedGlobal left Lviv, Russian rockets rained over a suburb where the doctors had been staying – killing 130-plus people.

The doctors still hope this will be the first of many trips, as long as the conflict continues.

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