Summer Ukraine Road Trip: Delivering Ambulances To Hospitals In Need

18.09.2023 - 10:19 / forbes.com

It wasn't exactly a vacation, but it was still summer.

Last week, I was in Ukraine, driving an ambulance. More specifically, I was barreling down the E40 motorway (“expressway” might be too generous), heading east from Lviv toward the nation’s capital, Kyiv, in a refurbished Peugeot Boxer ambulance with 160,000 miles on the odometer and a load of medical supplies packed in back. We were in sixth gear and running smoothly, but the road conditions generally kept us below 60 mph.

Before departing Lviv, the Director of the Ukraine Ambulance Corps had told us with a smile that any ambulance with less than 400,000 miles was considered a “new ambulance.” More somberly, he also mentioned that the life span of an ambulance in Ukraine was less than six months. “So, yes, we need ambulances,” he added.

This story started a few months earlier, when I connected with an old school friend who was supporting this ambulance project, and he invited me to come along. (Isn’t the point of old school friends to pull you into driving ambulances in foreign wars?) Organized by a marvelous U.K. charity called Medical Life Lines Ukraine (MLLU), I was able to help raise funds (thanks, everyone) to contribute toward purchasing and refurbishing ambulances, which were then delivered to the areas in Ukraine where they would have the greatest impact.

The MLLU Guidance for Drivers says: Russia's tactics have included targeting civilian infrastructure and healthcare—a war crime. By providing ambulances (and the aid they contain) we help to redress the balance. Our ambulances are delivered to the Ukrainian Ministry of Health which swiftly delivers them to civilian hospitals near the front line which really need them. We are connected with numerous hospitals (such as Ukraine's prosthetics centre of excellence—the Unbroken Project in Lviv) as well as the Ministry of Health and have their latest list of needs. The aid we take is what is needed and through you we will deliver it to where it is needed most.

After my self-funded flight to London, I spent a good part of Saturday in familiarization exercises. There’s nothing particularly tricky about the ambulance, but the gearbox is operated with the left hand since we were all sitting on the right of the vehicle, so it was worth practicing some basic maneuvers, such as lane changes, parking, and reversals a few times to more or less get it down pat.

Nor is a lot of prep work necessary, but I do recall lessons from when the U.S. government sent me on short assignments to Iraq and Afghanistan. The order of the day then was no socio-economic or geographical indicators should be apparent from how you dress. No branded apparel. No bling. If your grandfather gave you his Rolex, leave that at home.