Mission Report from Zaporizhzhia Oblast
We carried out a mission in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The nearest safe location for examining patients is 20 km from the red zone.
With the continuous thuds of explosions outside and the occasional “this is a painless procedure, please don’t move your head,” we worked from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Our schedule in the Google Sheet looked “respectable”: carefully planned in advance, with everyone in a single queue and a lunch break built in. In reality, we had three simultaneous queues for different types of patients. During the entire shift, the optometrist sat down only twice, while the ophthalmologist stepped away from the slit lamp just twice.
Key results of the mission:
4 days of work;
206 patients seen;
125 pairs of glasses provided;
141 bottles of eye drops distributed.
The doctors joke that this deployment is “boring because we hardly see any critical or complex cases.” But we are here for the patients. We notice that sometimes barely perceptible sigh of relief when a doctor says, “Your eyes are good — just tired. Everything I’ve found can be treated with this and this.”
The examinations remove the reasons for panic. They provide something that helps right now — medication and glasses — as well as clear next steps when a patient needs to see a highly specialized specialist.
The examinations reassure patients: they are not losing their sight because of the war. The changes they are experiencing are natural — the result of fatigue, stress, and age.
We are all where we need to be. We feel the weight of every discharge note we place into a patient’s hands. And although we have not finished yet, we already know that we want to come back here again.
With best wishes,
Team of CO CF See the Victory.
Tel.: +38 095 741 29 18
Comments