Well, Ben and Jen Grade Klaus has spent most
of his career at Yale New Haven Hospital,
working in the emergency room
and at the trauma center.
And it's because of all those years as a
medical professional all that experience.
But he's often been inspired to put himself
in some of the most harsh and chaotic
environments to help this time in Ukraine.
He's not treating patients, though.
He's not on the front lines, but Even so,
he was able to get a sense of what
Ukrainians are living day in and day out.
Last October, missiles struck
a Ukrainian apartment building.
Explosions hit a playground
near a hospital in Kiev.
While the images seemed a world
away to the average American,
to Greg Klaus, a nurse from Middletown,
they were uncomfortably close to where
he had been working just hours before.
Some of the nurses are this was never part
of what their basic training as a nurse was,
so they are sponging up as much as they can.
He was one nurse.
In a large group of medical
instructors standing before a
classroom of Ukrainian nurses,
interpreter by his side,
sharing knowledge through
experience on how to treat
patients and their most critical.
Electrical a nurse who
ordinarily may not work in a pre
hospital environment or in an
emergency room is now suddenly taking
care of run-of-the-mill trauma,
so to speak, or actually war wounds
running towards action,
running to help out has been
something Greg's used to.
He's treated patients after
events like Hurricane Katrina
or pandemic response across the
US but this trip was different.
The nursing colleague of mine called
me one day in early August and said.
I just sent you an e-mail,
you should check this out.
You might find this interesting.
Along with other healthcare
workers from the US,
Greg has been volunteering with
the International Medical Corps
in partnership with Harvard
Humanitarian Initiative.
And between a trip in October
and another in December,
he spent four weeks total teaching
in one of the most dangerous regions
in the world. Like in Nipro, a
town that was hit with one of
the worst civilian attacks in
Ukraine since the war began a year
ago. Back in October,
it was almost business as usual.
But you know, when an air raid
siren went, everybody went
undercover as they were supposed to.
Almost business as usual.
Just days after his crew left nepro,
October 10th, the city came under attack.
Struck Kieve, they struck knee pro,
they struck other places.
But for that particular week
that we were there for nepro,
there wasn't much activity.
The mission on his two trips teach the
fundamentals of trauma care, so nurses,
whatever their experience or specialty,
could provide care during war and save lives.
The other thing that they were offering was.
We stop the bleed program to medical
providers as well as general citizens.
Fire police, soldiers
some 4500 miles away from Ukraine stopped.
The bleed has roots here in Connecticut
after the Sandy Hook shooting.
Got together with other stakeholders
to come up with a way of potentially
training nontraditional providers in
hemorrhage control so that if you
were to stop someone from bleeding.
If they actually might survive,
just getting to the classrooms
in Ukraine is a journey.
Greg first arrived in Poland,
then walked across the Ukrainian border.
We all witnessed fathers
and husbands bringing their
family to the control point,
kissing them goodbye.
Saying I'll see you later.
To watch that happen was pretty,
pretty sobering
2 days in. During his December
trip to Zaporizhia, the in
person course was cut short,
the security manager saying we all
needed to get to the shelter now.
And literally.
Once we got onto the floor of the garage,
we heard two large explosions.
I remember looking at him going
at the building's not shaking.
So how far away was that?
And he said it was probably about 3 miles.
And what's there?
And that was a there's an electrical
switching power plant that was there.
The rest of the course was held via
zoom while the American instructors
were pulled out of Zapper Richa.
The local nurses obviously had to stay.
Just by watching the students on the screen.
You could you know you'd see
them flinch or you'd see them
looking over their shoulders.
So they were still living it,
you know, and that's an important
thing to understand that, you know,
I was there for two weeks these, you know,
those folks are living it every day.
Greg wants to make it clear,
while he did spend weeks
there experiencing what
Ukrainians are experiencing,
the good and the bad, he left.
He's able to go home of
what conflict be safe.
But that's not the case for
the Ukrainians he met,
who he calls warm,
Hardy and resilient,
was a flea market around the
corner from where we were teaching.
Staying, the vendor started talking
to me and he looked at me and he
he goes like that just to say,
well, what are you?
And I went American and he just,
I couldn't get out of the
bear hug fast enough.
This was Greg's first
time in Eastern Europe.
And he says when peace is restored,
he wants to go back.
But until then, when he follows
the news of what's happening,
he has a better understanding
and perspective of what is
actually happening in Ukraine.
So you watch it on TV,
you read the news reports, certainly
not the same as living it day-to-day,
having not lost family members.
In the conflict,
having not to uproot my home, you know,
and live out of suitcases and wonder,
will I make it to safety with my,
you know, with my children?
Certainly.
It's a very sobering experience.
Now, Greg messaged me days after our
interview saying he wouldn't be able to
see the story air live tonight because
he was indeed heading back to Ukraine.
That's where he is right now.
He wasn't totally certain
where he was headed this time.
We don't know where he is,
but he does know it would
be in western Ukraine.
So more removed from the conflict.
He's not nepro, he's not in
Zaporizhia or or I don't
think in key right now.
I know and the institutional knowledge
that he has from work from from yeah
from spending decades like nearly 40
years in in New Haven and and working
in trauma centers and and and aside
about the stop the Bleed program.
I got chills when he told me wait stop
the bleed started here in Connecticut.
And he said that already physicians that
are teaching that course in Ukraine
are hearing back from their students
saying we're saving lives right now in
the field because of stop the bleed
and the training he learned here
in Connecticut works a world. Way.
Yeah. Which is unbelievable. Yeah.
Through a translator. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Incredibly impactful work.
Yeah. And I'm glad you were able
to highlight what he's doing.
Yeah. And we wish him the
very best over there.
I can't wait to hear back from
him when he gets back safe.
Sure. Thank you, Sarah.
Thank you for sharing it.