Combat medics deliver lifesaving care on the frontlines of Russia’s war against Ukraine

Geoff Bennett:

And just beyond Ukraine's front lines, there is another fight to keep those injured on the battlefield alive.

Resources are low, but the volunteers who run a vast network of a emergency medical services remain committed to their lifesaving work.

Special correspondent Willem Marx and videographer Edward Kiernan spent time with some of these medics and filmed for the first time the extraordinary treatment given to wounded Ukrainian soldiers in the field. They also saw firsthand the difficulties that ordinary Ukrainians are having in accessing care in the midst of war.

And a warning:

Some of these images in this story are disturbing.

Willem Marx:

In a country at war, guardian angels appear in many guises, in this corridor, sorting through a mess of medical donations.

This is Kyiv H.Q. for the Hospitallers, a volunteer group of several hundred trained combat medics. These men and women getting briefed are not all Ukrainian. But they are all heading east to help treat Ukraine's wounded on its front lines with Russia.

Yana Zinkevych is the movements founder, and a member of Ukraine's Parliament.

Yana Zinkevych, Founder, Hospitallers Medical Battalion (through translator):

More and more people are coming. Today, we will be forming a new team, and it will be the 47th.

Willem Marx:

Her group tries to fill the gaps in a medical system under massive strain.

Yana Zinkevych (through translator):

You need to understand that when there are major military activities in different places at the same time, there is a limited quantity of military doctors, a limited quantity of medical vehicles, and a limited quantity of other military specialists.

Willem Marx:

In this makeshift stockroom, final packing preparations are under way.

In the shadow of a cathedral, to the soundtrack of a choir, these waiting ambulances will be stocked and shipped out. Days later and eight hours east in the town of Pavlohrad, we catch up with some Hospitallers, each team assigned to serve at front line postings, not all of them proficient in firearm safety.

Ihor is headed to a village on the border between Donetsk and Luhansk, two hours further east. Authorities asked us not to identify the location. There, a local walk-in clinic is now a military hospital, with extra E.R. space stationed outside, all of it empty when we arrive.

Just to give you an example of how health care is being delivered in this country during this conflict, this is a mobile field hospital that has been parked inside a very small, very quiet Ukrainian village about 15 minutes' drive from front-line fighting. And two civilian oncologist surgeons are waiting here every day for dozens of patients to be brought in.

Cancer specialist Miroslav Dombrovych told us he'd been here two weeks and had helped stabilize many severely injured soldiers.

Miroslav Dombrovych, Surgeon:

We see bullet injuries to the brain, bullet injuries to the chest, abdomen, extremities.

Willem Marx:

As we talk, a radio announces an emergency arrival.

Miroslav Dombrovych:

I go to help our soldiers.

Willem Marx:

OK. Thanks.

Miroslav Dombrovych:

Thank you.

Willem Marx:

A Hospitaller team unloads 18-year-old Vasyl, a volunteer soldier struck by shelling at a nearby checkpoint. He's badly hurt.

Inside the trauma room, Miroslav struggles with colleagues to save his life. They have lost two patients already today. Shrapnel has pierced Vasyl's skull. They staunch the bleeding, intubate, check his back, examine the wound. Vasyl's cell phone starts to ring repeatedly. It's taken outside with his other belongings.

His head is wrapped. A doctor requests transport to a better-equipped hospital. Then they wait. The long delay worries these civilian doctors.

Miroslav Dombrovych, (through translator):

The wound is severe. The prognosis is serious, but it helps that the brain stem is not damaged and is working. Blood flow and saturation are within the acceptable limits.

Willem Marx:

With the ambulance en route, doctors start treating Slava, who asked us not to film his face. He reached the same post as Vasyl the night before, was caught in the same shell blast, but has escaped with much lighter injuries.

An ambulance finally arrives for the long journey to Dnipro's Mechnikov Hospital, where Vasyl still remains alive, but in a coma. Staff there treat soldiers and civilians alike, the vast majority victims of Russian missiles. Strikes on a train station in Kramatorsk on April 8 shocked the world.

For 46-year-old railway worker Evgeniy, they shattered his WIFE.

Evgeniy, Injured Civilian (through translator):

Suddenly, we heard the explosions, cluster ones, one, two, three. I am not sure if I jumped or not.

Maybe I figured it out late. I don't know. But when I fell and was lying down, I heard an explosion again. I turned my head. My hand was in an unnatural position, my knees bleeding like hell, and people are running around.

Willem Marx:

Within two hours, he was on the operating table.

Evgeniy (through translator):

I consider myself lucky. My actual birthday is April 17. So, April 8 is now my second birthday.

Willem Marx:

Natalia Budiak is responsible for East Ukraine's heavily stressed health care system, as hospitals like this try to cope with the conflict's many victims.

Natalia Budiak, Ukraine National Health Service (through translator):

The system has been reconfigured to provide patients with the care they need as quickly as possible. So, everyone tries to bring patients as soon as possible to the nearest hospital that can provide care.

Willem Marx:

Ukraine recently created a nationwide health service, the only one to operate meaningfully in a country mired in conflict.

Natalia Budiak (through translator):

These are things that have never coexisted in the world, so this is the first time we have encountered this. Were we ready for this? You can't beat ready for war.

Willem Marx:

Russian bombs damage Ukrainians' bodies, but also destroy Ukrainian buildings, pharmacies included.

In the heavily shelled city of Chernihiv, northeast of Kyiv, Anatoliy Grabovetz hunts for his elderly mother's pain medication.

Anatoliy Grabovetz, Chernihiv Resident (through translator):

There were no timely deliveries of the medicine. And when it all started, the pharmaceutical warehouse was bombed.

Willem Marx:

At those stores still standing, 66-year-old Leonid Kuzmin cannot get the drugs he needs.

Leonid Kuzmin, Ukrainian Resident (through translator):

There are shortages of the medicines in there. Supplies are not regular.

Willem Marx:

British paramedic Richard Whitmarsh is well-versed in emergencies, but he has never seen desperation like this.

Richard Whitmarsh, Volunteer Paramedic:

It is going be a crisis if things don't change quite soon, because we have got all these chronic illness needs that are not being met.

Did you take it every day, or…

Willem Marx:

He has come here as a volunteer to help however he can, dispensing a limited supply of pills, but plenty of professional advice…

Richard Whitmarsh:

So, if she used to cut these in half and take one a day…

Willem Marx:

… to an endless line of locals.

Richard Whitmarsh:

There seems to be a breakdown somewhere.

I think the main focus is on the security, the army, the war, and fighting the Russians, which is understandable. But there does seem to be a missing element here in the community, as you can see from the crowd to my left now.

Willem Marx:

The catastrophic consequences of this conflict felt not just on the battlefield.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Willem Marx in Chernihiv, Ukraine.

Geoff Bennett:

And a note: Our coverage of Ukraine is supported in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.