For many, images from the invasion of Ukraine stir feelings of horror and helplessness but one Boston doctor saw in those same images an opportunity to help. Dr. Erica Nelson leaves Sunday on a medical mission that will take her to Poland. From there, she’ll travel inside Ukraine to where her skills as an emergency room physician are needed most.”If ever there was a circumstance in which I felt compelled to do something, this is one of them,” she said, shortly after finishing an overnight shift at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.Nelson is the deputy medical director of the disaster response group Team Rubicon. In that role, she’s brought medical care to the victims of many disasters and tragedies. “I’ve been in Jamaica after hurricanes,” she said. “I’ve been in Ethiopia. I’ve been in Palestine.”This time, she’s planning to travel to the city of Lviv in western Ukraine.”It’s a horrifying environment,” she said. “It’s an insecure environment. But just being scared doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be going.”Nelson said she will rely on the skills and experience honed in one of Boston’s busiest emergency rooms. “You know lives are on the line. You know that you’re responsible for something important,” she said. “At the same time, you also know you have a duty to care and you have some capacity to ease suffering, and so you look past that fear.”Team Rubicon’s physicians and refugee workers are already at work in Ukraine and bordering countries. Nelson said those colleagues have given her a sense of what she could see and smell.”There’s this sour taste in the air because you can actually smell a bombing, right? And things are thick and there’s refuse everywhere,” she said. “They have no running water. They can’t wash themselves. They’ve got wounds that are festering.”Nelson said she is prepared to treat Ukrainians in their time of need. It’s a calling that inspires her to run toward danger when so many others are leaving. “There’s something, like, really honest and really beautiful about being in that space and it makes you feel that you’re living,” Nelson said.
For many, images from the invasion of Ukraine stir feelings of horror and helplessness but one Boston doctor saw in those same images an opportunity to help.
Dr. Erica Nelson leaves Sunday on a medical mission that will take her to Poland. From there, she’ll travel inside Ukraine to where her skills as an emergency room physician are needed most.
“If ever there was a circumstance in which I felt compelled to do something, this is one of them,” she said, shortly after finishing an overnight shift at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Nelson is the deputy medical director of the disaster response group Team Rubicon. In that role, she’s brought medical care to the victims of many disasters and tragedies.
“I’ve been in Jamaica after hurricanes,” she said. “I’ve been in Ethiopia. I’ve been in Palestine.”
This time, she’s planning to travel to the city of Lviv in western Ukraine.
“It’s a horrifying environment,” she said. “It’s an insecure environment. But just being scared doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be going.”
Nelson said she will rely on the skills and experience honed in one of Boston’s busiest emergency rooms.
“You know lives are on the line. You know that you’re responsible for something important,” she said. “At the same time, you also know you have a duty to care and you have some capacity to ease suffering, and so you look past that fear.”
Team Rubicon’s physicians and refugee workers are already at work in Ukraine and bordering countries. Nelson said those colleagues have given her a sense of what she could see and smell.
“There’s this sour taste in the air because you can actually smell a bombing, right? And things are thick and there’s refuse everywhere,” she said. “They have no running water. They can’t wash themselves. They’ve got wounds that are festering.”
Nelson said she is prepared to treat Ukrainians in their time of need. It’s a calling that inspires her to run toward danger when so many others are leaving.
“There’s something, like, really honest and really beautiful about being in that space and it makes you feel that you’re living,” Nelson said.
