Clinical and executive leaders at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Schuylkill are hoping that an older piece of equipment at the hospital can make a major difference in the lives of people in war-torn Ukraine.

The hospital has donated a GE Sonosite S-Nerve ultrasound that will help clinicians gain better vascular access and provide for the delivery of regional anesthesia.

“We are very happy that the hospital was able to make this equipment available to help people in need. The ultrasound is in good working order despite its age,” said Dr. Ivan Grynyshin, MD, a native Ukrainian and an anesthesiologist who has served Schuylkill County for more than 20 years.

Unless being in a war zone, it is probably rather difficult to imagine how challenging it is to deliver health care to wounded military personnel or civilians. Typically, the number of injuries greatly exceeds the resources available. Equipment, technology and supplies are always in demand.

“Injuries to the arms and legs of civilians and military personnel are one of the most common injuries seen in Ukrainian hospitals, since the war has started,” said Dr. Carmella Shemansik, MD, an anesthesiologist at LVH - Schuylkill. “Ultrasound plays an important role in helping to treat these injuries, because they assist doctors when placing peripheral nerve blocks.”

A peripheral nerve block is an anesthesia technique involving the infiltration of local anesthetic around a nerve to numb the area of the body that is supplied by that nerve. The ultrasound device allows clinicians to directly visualize the nerve and its surrounding structures, so that they can be very precise in where local anesthetic is placed.

“Once the extremity is completely numb, surgeries can then be performed without the patient feeling any discomfort,” said Dr. Shemansik.

Dr. Shemansik was able to donate the device, because the hospital recently upgraded the device with the newest available. Dr. Grynyshin had been looking to purchase or acquire much-needed medical devices to send to a physician classmate and friend at the Ivano-Frankivsk N+++ational Medical University in Ukraine. Grynyshin still has family and friends living in the nation at war.

“It was a wonderful coincidence to learn that the hospital was replacing this ultrasound equipment,” Dr. Grynyshin said. “We are very happy that the hospital was able to make this equipment available to help people in need. The ultrasound is in good working order despite its age.”

Grynyshin noted that the war in Ukraine has obviously posed many challenges to its health care system, and patients are being taken care of in a broad range of settings from academic facilities to temporary field hospitals.

He expects that the ultrasound device will be in use at a Ukranian hospital within about 30 days.

“We will get it ready for shipping, and it will be sent with other equipment and technology, which have also been donated,” Grynyshin said.