British doctors prepare Ukrainian surgeons to operate in war zones

Surgical training course developed at pace for medics working in Ukraine

Dr David Nott has trained hundreds of Ukrainian colleagues for warzone surgery over Zoom, as sirens blared across the war-torn country.

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A British doctor who is a veteran of operating in conflict zones has trained hundreds of Ukrainian colleagues for war surgery over Zoom.

Professor David Nott, who has worked in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, crunched a five-day course into a 12-hour online war surgery training session for 573 healthcare professionals in Ukraine.

During the course, one doctor said that air strike alarms were sounding around him but stayed online to learn as much life-saving information as possible.

Among the skills taught were how to deal with wounds and injuries rarely seen outside war zones, and skills including how to build makeshift pelvic binders — used to stem bleeding and compress fractures.

Prof Nott, a consultant surgeon specialising in vascular and trauma surgery at St Mary’s Hospital, co-founded the David Nott Foundation in 2015 to provide doctors and medical staff with the skills to treat wounds in areas of conflict and catastrophe.

“At the front line of conflict zones are medical teams working tirelessly in often under-resourced and ill-equipped hospitals. Many have never experienced traumatic war injuries,” he said.

“When the crisis unfolded in Ukraine, we sprang into action to condense my 25 years of war surgery experience on the front line into a 12-hour course for those in need.”

More than 40 children have been killed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine as civilian deaths climb past 2,000, a leading Kyiv politician has said.

At least 75 children have been wounded, with “some of them now dying”, said Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Ukraine’s former deputy prime minister.

There were also reports of children trapped in the rubble of bombed homes.

“They are being found under the debris and then they are dying from dehydration,” she said.

Vadim Corjos, a general surgeon from Ukraine who based in the UK, said the course gives doctors a very good base to save more lives in war and conflict areas.

Dr Henry Marsh, former consultant neurosurgeon at St George’s Hospital, who led the neurosurgery session of the course, said: “I hope and pray that my Ukrainian friends and colleagues will not need to apply all that they learn from the David Nott Foundation webinar.

“But we must do what we can to prepare them for the possible horrors ahead as Russia continues with its evil and murderous invasion.”