A local doctor who has made multiple trips to Ukraine to help those wounded in the war will be presenting at the Studio Stage Door on Monday.
Dr. Tracy Parnell has travelled to Ukraine five times already and is preparing for a sixth trip.
“They won my heart over with the experience of what they are fighting against,” she said.
“The areas that I go to are in the Donbas, I’ve been working in Bakhmout three times, which has recently become more in the news as the area they are fighting vigorously over.
It’s a dangerous area but I have a military background. I am as safe as they are.”
She has started a Gofundme under the name MedicTeam4Ukraine to raise money so they can teach doctors, nurses and paramedics in Ukraine, advanced trauma care.
A presentation will be held on July 17 at 7:30 to tell people about what’s happening in Ukraine and why it’s important that the West helps out.
“I want people to be aware of that and to know and understand that when we’re supporting them, this really is a fight that is for freedom that we take for granted,” she said.
“That’s why I kept going back after my first trip.”
She said the similarities to World War 1 and 2 are frightening.
“I went through and looked at the history that predated the previous world wars and the parallels to what’s happening now terrified me,” she added.
“Change a word, or change the country and it is the same rhetoric, it is the same playbook that happened prior to the world wars. This isn’t just a war in another country that’s impacting people far far away, this really I believe has the potential to be the sort of challenge that will impact us on a global scale if we’re not careful. I think in the West it’s very easy to forget what’s happening over there, but the volume of patients, the volume of injuries and the type of injuries are horrific.”
Dr. Parnell relies on help to get to Ukraine as she’s not under a charity. Most medical charities won’t go to the areas she is going to due to the risk.
She is hoping to head back within the next two weeks.
Below is a link to the MedicTeam4Ukraine Gofundme.
MORE: MedicTeam4Ukraine (Gofundme)
