UMC provides Mukachevo with a Portable X-Ray
One of the most important pieces of medical equipment is the X-Ray, a device that can generate images of a patient’s internal tissues, structures, and damage. In Ukraine, supply lines for X-Ray machines have been obstructed while hospitals overflow with patients. As a result, UMC has received countless requests for X-Rays, in particular for portable X-Rays. These machines are used for orthopedic surgery, emergency surgery, and complicated procedures, due to their ability to provide real-time x-ray images.
After processing and prioritizing requests for these machines, UMC and our partner organization, the Institute for Emergency Medicine (IEM), responded to a Mukachevo hospital’s urgent request for a portable X-Ray. However, the process of delivering the X-Ray was not always straightforward. Due to the difficulties in crossing the border between Poland and Ukraine, our warehouse in Krakow, Poland, uses vans to deliver shipments of medical supplies. However, the team at the warehouse ran into difficulties loading the X-Ray for Mukachevo, due to its unexpectedly large dimensions. The height of the machine itself was 193 cm, and the width of the van was 194 cm, which didn’t allow enough room to rotate the x-ray into place.
The perplexing situation left the entire IEM team standing around the machine trying to find a solution that would fit the X-Ray into the van, and also make it possible for the hospital in Mukachevo to unload it without equipment. Anna Zawiślak, our medical director, described the predicament as “everyone scratching their heads like this is really a cartoon”. The team finally found a working solution that involved lots of bubble wrap to protect the X-Ray lamp and building a platform to load the machine on.
The van departed over the weekend and arrived in Mukachevo, where hospital staff was remarkably able to remove the machine from the van without damaging it, attesting to the commitment of hospitals to their patients. The doctors at the Mukachevo hospital expressed their gratefulness for receiving the X-Ray, which has already made an enormous positive impact on the hospital’s ability to treat its patients.