ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Amid the nightmare unfolding in Ukraine, a local surgeon goes above and beyond to help.
Dr. David Brown, a plastic surgeon with Michigan Medicine, has gathered medical supplies to send them to the warzone.
Every September for the last eight years, Dr. Brown has traveled to Ukraine with Doctors Collaborating to Help Children Corp. While there, surgeons like Dr. Brown do burn reconstruction on children.
He keeps in touch with the medical staff he’s met in Ukraine.
“We got photographs of the hospital in Dnipro, which is on the eastern side of Ukraine that we were at in September, where they were being bombed and having to move the babies from the intensive care unit,” said Dr. Brown.
He knows as doctors they can’t resolve a war but knows every little bit of support helps, so Dr. Brown organized a medical supply drive.
“We’re sending supplies that are needed urgently in emergency rooms, trauma centers, children’s hospitals,” Dr. Brown said.
The list of items includes gauzes, bandages, and syringes.
Local hospitals and nonprofits have donated supplies.
Two weeks ago, the first plane full of supplies went out to Poland then trucks delivered them to Ukrainian hospitals.
Dr. Brown wants to send more and is collecting monetary donations here.
“Every dollar that you would contribute goes directly to the funding of supplies and medical missions to Ukraine without any administrative overhead,” Dr. Brown said. “It’s also tax-deductible.”