November 2022 Update
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November 29, 2022
I don't really know where to start...
It's the first significant failure in 9 months. We lost a person under our care today. After 950km, and 16 hours of driving Ruslan and I arrived to Kherson and were about to load her into Nika when she went into a heart attack, stopped breathing, and lost her pulse.
We began CPR and tried raising Ukrainian EMS. Comms are still mostly down in Kherson. The EMS number did not respond, but the police one did, and they tried to patch us through.
We also got through to Alexander Smirnov and Iryna Amiramova, who began guiding us through resuscitation
After about 15 minutes of trying, we managed to restart her heart and shocked it into a normal rhythm. But it only lasted a few minutes and then she flat-lined. We kept doing CPR. After 30 minutes we ran out of oxygen in the tank. After 40 minutes the EMS arrived. We worked on her together for another 20 minutes and then they called the time of death.
I know we did everything we could under circumstances, and with the resources, we had available to us, but I still feel like shit. I hate that we couldn't save her. I hate this war!
Her name was Зинаида Васильевна.
Dmitriy Lee.
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November 28, 2022
The crew arrived at Mykolaiv at 23:00. The hotel they were supposed to spend the night at was destroyed. Also, due to the road condition, they lost three tires out of six. The tires were patched, but they need to be replaced as soon as possible.
The supplies were delivered to the local medics.
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November 28, 2022
The week of the Thanksgiving
The previous weekend we picked up more medical supplies for the new shipment.
We spent our whole week and Thanksgiving sorting and packing everything. The last box was done at 2 a.m. on Saturday. Saturday afternoon, we dropped it at the Meest pickup location. Now it is on the way to Ukraine!
It was 21 boxes containing medical supplies donated to GDRT, an approximate value of $35K. It included Glideslope and unique orthopedic sets for fixing crushed bones. It was donated by the New Hampshire and Massachusetts (North Shore and Boston) hospitals. All the supplies were coordinated with the intended hospitals in Ukraine, making sure they will receive what is most needed now.
It will be delivered to the hospital and forward medical units Kherson, Dnipro, and Vinnytsia.
The total weight is 698 pounds, and the price for shipping $1989.90.
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November 28, 2022
We are finishing moving the base to Poland. I want to believe that our visa restrictions will end by mid-December
At night Ruslan Zinchenko and Dmitriy Lee loaded 'Nika' with medicine and supplies and in the morning went to Kherson, where it is now most needed. They deliver syringes, catheters, systems, needles, surgical instruments, and various fluids.
One bedridden and two blind people should be taken back, but until the patients are reached, plans could change any second.
It's dangerous in Kherson now.
Alexander Zharov.
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November 24, 2022
Alexander Zharov arrived in Poland November 21, 2022
Dmitriy Lee arrived in Poland November 24, 2022
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November 20, 2022
Yesterday we picked up another load of medical supplies for Ukraine. No space in the garage again.
Starting preparation for the new shipment.
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November 19, 2022
Леся Доброскоченко-Оводовська sent from Nikolaev - medicine reached the final recipients. Collected by doctors from hospitals on the northeastern coast with the help of our doctors Boris Bronfine and Alexey Makogonov, documented, packaged, and sent via Meest to Odessa, from there to Nikolaev, and further towards Kherson. And since Kherson is now ours, and almost everything has been taken out of there, together with many, we will also gradually replenish it. Today again, we brought a full truckload of everything you need from Boris from New Hampshire.
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November 16, 2022
Bureaucrats are the same everywhere. They didn't give us visas. "Purpose of stay not confirmed". Like, “we still don’t understand what you did / will do there”. The real reason is written on our passports - "place of birth - Russia". With such a stigma, as it turned out, they do not give a visa now.
Fortunately, we anticipated this outcome and prepared Plan B. We are moving the base to Poland and will go to Ukraine only for the duration of the missions.
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November 11, 2022
One more shipment to Zaporizhya was sent today. 9 boxes, 221 lbs, $653.55
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November 2, 2022
Alexander Smirnov and Alexander Zharov are in the USA now. We are almost run out of visa days and had to go home to apply for Ukrainian visas.