Top Story: U of M medical student reflects on 2 months behind the front lines in Ukraine

Sergey Karachenets, a 24 year old Ukranian medical student at the University of Minnesota, has spent the last two months behind the front lines as a combat medic. He wants to give back to the country where he was born and said he couldn’t think of anything better to do than volunteer his first two years of medical school.

He has traveled to Eastern Europe a few times during the war, but the most recent proved to be the most life changing. He worked alongside Road to Relief, directly helping soldiers injured in the fighting. Karachenets’ first day in Bakhmut was shocking as there was quite a difference between his experience as a firefighter EMT and a combat medic.

“In the U.S., the most trauma we’d see on an ambulance would maybe be a car crash or some elderly person that fell and we have some head injury. Here, we’re getting the whole spectrum of penetrating trauma, blunt trauma, explosive trauma, amputations. I got a very large amount of experience quickly,” he says.

Karacgenets has no prior military experience and found most of his colleagues don’t either. Most medics and doctors working there had little to no connection to Ukraine at all. The soldiers were very grateful for their work, but it won’t be enough until they can secure a win. Karachenets said his friends and family back home in Minnesota were super supportive, helping him deal with the emotional weight of his experience. He plans to return to Ukraine in between semesters of medical school.

You can read more about his experience here.