Samaritan’s Purse Emergency Team Head For Ukraine To Set Up Mobile Hospital

Samaritan’s Purse is sending a medical team to Ukraine to be on the ground as the Russian military continues to attack the country.

The U.S.-based charity, headed up by Franklin Graham, son of the legendary Billy Graham, has a wide range of ways it serves the community, but their disaster relief unit is a powerful witness of Jesus in action. Sending a DC-8 jet overseas, complete with 50 medical and non-medical staff, the team landed safely in Poland, and materials for the Emergency Field Hospital have been transported to Ukraine.

“The Samaritan’s Purse team is now in the process of setting up the facility,” the charity said. “Based on recent assessments, it has been decided to increase the capacity of our Ukraine field hospital. We are planning for two operating rooms, with a capacity for 14 major surgeries or 30 minor surgeries per day.

“There will be four wards, with 50 inpatient beds, and an emergency room that handles 100 patients per day. Also included are four intensive care unit beds and four step-down beds. Additional equipment is scheduled to be flown to Poland and taken into Ukraine later this week.”

The charity says the field hospital is equipped with its own water and sanitation system and could be operational as early as next week.

“Ukrainian families are hurting and in desperate need of physical aid and prayer during this difficult time,” said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse. “We are deploying life-saving medical care to aid people who are suffering. We want to meet the needs of these families in their darkest moments.

“Samaritan’s Purse already has disaster response specialists on the ground in Poland, Romania, and Moldova and we plan to send two medical clinics on an additional flight next week. Assessment teams continue to work to identify the most strategic locations for these units. These health clinics will equip Samaritan’s Purse medical staff to meet minor trauma needs and provide general medical care for some 200 patients each day.”

The Eastern European nation remains in deep crisis as fighting continues to spread and escalate, with deadly violence hitting the capital, Kyiv, and the second-largest city, Kharkiv. The United Nations reports that more than 1 million refugees, primarily women, and children, have already left Ukraine seeking shelter in nearby nations.

Samaritan’s Purse also has said that it has many ministry partners inside Ukraine, including a “robust outreach” through Operation Christmas Child. They say that just as the conflict erupted, they were in the process of distributing 600,000 gift-filled shoeboxes this year.

Samaritan’s Purse has been particularly active in the last few years, setting up mobile hospitals. In 2020, they set up mobile hospitals in both Italy and New York’s Central Park, as hospitals were overwhelmed with managing Covid-19 patients.