This child was critically wounded in an artillery strike on her home. Here she is being transferred from Bakhmut to a hospital. She sustained fractures to all of her limbs, a traumatic brain injury and 7 penetrating shrapnel wounds to her torso. Shortly after this photo was taken in our blacked out ambulance, we were ambushed. After fleeing the kill zone, this Childs lung had a tension pneumothorax which was dealt with. Sadly we could not save her 12 year old sister in Bakhmut and she also lost her two little playmates who were fatally injured in the same attack.

  In this photo, Solent Medical Skills runs a 3 day course for PFVMH doctors and surgeons to help them bridge the gap between hospital and pre-hospital environments. The unusual venue is a deserted oligarchs mansion.

A view of a typical stabilisation points – (ROLE 2)

One of the Ukranian doctors we crewed with to form front line response (the doctor is an anesthetist). Here he is administering Propofol to sedate a patient with shrapnel in his head.

This is the same doctor.

Here the doctor and Solent medical prepare a patient for critical transfer from Bakhmut. The receiving hospital was a 10 hour drive over very bad roads, with the frontlines to our left.

Another patient with shrapnel in the head (we had 7 like this within a week). Here he is sedated and intubated for the long difficult critical transfer from Bakhmut. That is the city that experienced the longest and bloodiest battle of the war so far.

A hospital in Kyiv in March 2022. Solent Medical was based here initially before transferring to PFVMH.

Some downtime for ome of the PFVHM doctors and crews

Giving an interview to Ukranian forces radio in the Donbas.

Here, yet another child is critically injured when his house was shelled near Bakhmut. Sadly his mother dies at scene. Whilst we were saving his life, the MiG fighter that attacked his home kept returning to disrupt our treatment.

A lack of armored vehicles meant we had to improvise and cross our fingers!

One of the Weinmann ventilators that was donated early on in the conflict. This simple and robust unit served us well in difficult conditions.

The night before, we were ambushed in a bright yellow ambulance. the next day, car paints were sourced and here we attempt to make the vehicles less obvious. A captured Russian sniper admitted getting a financial bonus for targeting medics.

The wrecked Irpin bridge where the fleeing refugees and the wounded had to somehow cross.

Teaching clinical skills to some soldiers and PFVMH volunteers.

April 2022 in Irpin – here you can see the rag-tag assortment of body armor that we had to use. This was an upgrade from the locally made plate carriers we used before which had heavy 1/4 inch thick sheets of steel in them. Later we obtained proper armor up to level 4 (needed because the Russians are using armor piercing .762 rounds).

Our handy-work with a spray can! Just after this makeover, a drone was overhead and artillery strikes hit the nearby street.

This little girl was critically wounded as she played at her home. She sustained 4 fractured limbs, a traumatic brain injury and 7 small shrapnel holes in her torso. 40 minutes into the critical transfer, she had a tension pneumothorax which we dealt with. She was vomiting constantly but we had no anti-emetics. A few minutes after this photo was taken (the windows are all blacked out), we were ambushed by mortars. We saved this child but could do nothing for her 12 year old sister. her two little playmates also died at scene.

Fatigue is showing after nearly 4 weeks on this rotation under shelling at Bakhmut.