LocationsPart of a life-saving team
An ambulance driver trained by the EU and UNDP saves lives in Chernihiv every day
What Anton Atroshchenko loves most about his job is coming home after a long shift, exhausted but with the feeling of having done his duty. “It’s as if the day wasn’t lived in vain,” Atroshchenko explains. “You’ve saved someone’s life, performed 80 percent of what was necessary during their resuscitation, got them to the hospital, and then, after a week or two, you drop by the recovery room to ask how they’re doing. When they tell you, ‘All good,’ believe me, that makes it all worthwhile.”
Atroshchenko, 29, is an emergency medical technician (EMT) in Chernihiv. He used to repair cars abroad until his visa expired. He planned on returning to Chernihiv for a few months, but then the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and the borders closed. His friends suggested he works as an ambulance driver for a while, and eventually, Atroshchenko stopped waiting for the borders to reopen, as working for the Chernihiv ambulance service became his life’s calling.
Atroshchenko is part of the 11th Emergency Medical Team at the Chernihiv Oblast Centre for Emergency Medical Care and Disaster Medicine. He quickly gained experience, but he soon realized that COVID-19 would not be the biggest challenge he would face. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Chernihiv was under siege for 41 days. Anton lived at work.
“If I told you I wasn’t scared, I’d be lying,” he admits. “You’d be driving to a call with a Russian plane flying overhead. You’d squint, wondering if it had dropped something or not.” As the driver, his top priority was to deliver the patient to the hospital or the medical team to the scene via the shortest and safest route.
Atroshchenko first encountered a traumatic amputation when a shell struck a residential building; he was transporting a man who had had his leg torn off. On another call, the team came under fire just as they were exiting a building. They took shelter with residents in a corridor behind two walls, and one collapsed just 15 metres from Atroshchenko. Even now, his team’s calls are often war-related. However, the cases vary widely, from non-urgent incidents to traffic accidents, stab wounds, or gunshot injuries. The ability to react quickly to critical situations is vital.
As part of Ukraine’s ongoing health care reform, all ambulance drivers are required to qualify as EMTs – medical professionals who provide emergency care outside hospital settings or on the way to them. In Chernihiv Oblast, the first group of drivers was selected from the most motivated candidates. Atroshchenko volunteered for the training, which was organized as part of the flagship “EU4Recovery – Empowering Communities in Ukraine” partnership between UNDP and the EU.
The training, held at Sumy Medical College, enabled him to contribute even more to his team and save lives. He has already applied his new skills multiple times. Now, when his team starts resuscitation efforts, he understands the sequence of actions precisely. The paramedic establishes intravenous access, the doctor performs tracheal intubation to secure the airway, and Atroshchenko administers chest compressions during the first six to eight minutes of resuscitation – a critical window of time.
“We divide our roles,” Atroshchenko says. “On the way to a call involving an unconscious patient, for instance, we agree in advance: I’ll handle compressions first, then switch with the paramedic. The doctor monitors the heart rhythm, prescribes medications, and we carry out their instructions. Sometimes adrenaline needs to be administered. I know exactly where it’s kept in the bag, how to prepare it, how to inject it, and how to flush the vein. They say, ‘Adrenaline!’ – and I do it. That’s how we work,” Atroshchenko explains.
In one instance in Chernihiv, his team was called to rescue a woman who had fallen from a ninth-floor window onto the roof of an annex building. There was no direct access to her, so rescuers suggested climbing a ladder to reach the roof. That day, Anton was working with female paramedics who would have struggled with the climb. Thanks to his training as an EMT, Atroshchenko was able to attend to the woman himself. He assessed her condition, fitted her with a cervical collar, and secured her on a vacuum mattress. Once the police opened a neighbour’s balcony to reach the patient, she was carried to the ambulance. She survived. This is just one story from Atroshchenko’s work where the end could have been very different without his advanced EMT training.
Photo credit: Kostiantyn Chernichkin / Reporters / UNDP in Ukraine
