Reading Hospital Employees Send Medical Help to Ukraine

A Reading Hospital nurse will treat patients in the field while collected medical supplies will be delivered to the front lines.

Reading Hospital's staff is responding to the tragedy in Ukraine by sending 1,400 pounds of medical supplies and an emergency nurse to the war-torn country.

Jean Ebersole, PHRN for the Reading, Pennsylvania, hospital and her team from the Armada Network, a Christian ministry left for Ukraine this week, prepared to treat everything from primary care to field traumas, according to a press release.

They planned to have a clinic setting based in a home and an ambulance to provide additional treatment in the field.

Ebersole's Tower Health colleagues who have expertise in disaster response, emergency medicine, and trauma helped her prepare for the trip by providing additional training and sharing their experiences in combat and disaster situations.

"The employees at Reading Hospital are a team no matter where they are providing care, as evidenced by the outpouring of support Jean has received from her colleagues," said Charles F. Barbera, MD, Reading Hospital president and CEO.

Ebersole's skills are valuable in disaster situations, such as when she went to Haiti after the devastating earthquake in 2010.

"I can remain calm in terrible situations and I’m good at thinking on my feet. I’ve worked in other areas in the hospital but came back to prehospital," she said. "This is the first time I will have to wear combat gear to treat patients."

Delivering much-needed supplies

The supplies collected by Reading Hospital employees will be delivered to frontline hospitals through the effort of Filip Moshkovsky, DO, a trauma surgeon at Reading Hospital and Ukraine native.

Moshkovsky, who fled Ukraine in 1989 because of religious persecution by the Soviet Union and still has family there, connected with a physician in Ukraine who is organizing medical supply donations and delivering them to frontline hospitals.

"We had no idea what to expect when our collection efforts started," Moshkovsky said. "We ended up with 1,400 pounds of medical supplies, enough to fill four pallets. The people of this hospital and this community are generous, caring, competent, and professional people."

Moshkovsky is also partnering with the Reading Hospital Foundation for a second employee donation drive to benefit families and children in Ukraine.

"I hope to go to Ukraine this summer to provide medical and surgical care, Moshkovsky said. "But collecting medical supplies and other items the Ukrainian people who are in desperate need is the way I can help now."