RWTH: The emergency situation in the hospitals increases with each day of the war

This week, several 40-ton trucks with bandages, medical equipment and medicines left Aachen for the Polish-Ukrainian border. The help is urgently needed on site, in the hospitals in Lviv and other Ukrainian cities. When RWTH professor Andrij Pich accompanied the first large aid convoy as part of the “RWTH and university hospital help in Ukraine” campaign, the doctors told him that they had to press open wounds with their bare hands during operations due to a lack of equipment. “It was very moving how happy the doctors were when they were handed over,” says Pich.

When the aid convoy handed over the delivery from Aachen to the Ukrainian doctors at the border, news of the Russian attack on the Yaworiv military base near Lviv arrived. On the way back, however, Pich and his companions were informed that the bandages and medication such as morphine and antibiotics could also be used directly for the victims of the attack.

Professor Andrij Pich accompanies the transport.
Pich, who was born in Ukraine and is a professor at the Institute for Technical and Macromolecular Chemistry at the RWTH and DWI-Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials, is the initiator of the relief campaign. He has family and friends locally, many of whom work in the medical sector, so he knows the needs. In the meantime, more than 550,000 euros have been collected for “RWTH and Uniklinik helfen in der Ukraine” – this includes many individual donations, but also proceeds from fundraising campaigns. With the help of these funds, the pharmacy of the university clinic procures what is urgently needed in the Ukrainian clinics. “We are very grateful to everyone who supports us in this way. It shows us clearly how much the fate of the Ukrainians who have to live in this terrible war also affects and worries the people here,” says Pich.


The Russian war of aggression continues with undiminished severity and also exacerbates the problems of medical care in Ukraine. “With every passing day, the number of wounded is increasing and with it the need for relief supplies such as vascular prostheses. The action of the RWTH and the university clinic helps here very directly and concretely,” he emphasizes.

In the meantime, a stable logistics chain has been established up to the Polish-Ukrainian border. There, to protect against attacks, which are often carried out on larger convoys, the goods are usually reloaded into smaller transporters. Temporary hospitals are also being set up on the Polish side to care for the wounded and sick refugees. Among other things, 22 special ventilators are stationed there, which can be brought quickly to Lviv, for example, if there is a specific need. The risk of an entire shipment of such valuable equipment being destroyed in an in-transit attack is too great. Therefore, they are gradually being delivered to the hospitals.