From Cooper to Kyiv: Doctor joins training mission in war-torn Ukraine

Phaedra Trethan, Cherry Hill Courier-Post
·6 min read

Joshua Rempell has been in unstable countries and worked under less-than-ideal conditions before. He's been to South Sudan during the African nation's civil war; in Haiti (where he met his wife, a physician like him); and in Rwanda.

But the Cooper University Hospital doctor specializing in emergency medicine admitted he's never been in a situation like the one he was in recently: In Ukraine, hearing air raid sirens, training people crowded into bomb shelters, phones pinging alarms with each missile sighting.

He was in awe, he admitted, with the resilience of the Ukrainian people he met. They were willing to wait hours in line for medical training he and others were offering, prepared to do anything to help their fellow citizens survive the onslaught of Russian bombardments — but also in many ways going about their everyday lives as best they could, making adjustments as best they could ("By 7 p.m., the city was pitch-dark," he said) as the war dragged on.

Rempell went to Ukraine in October, part of a 12-person team of doctors, nurses and paramedics to train civilians, first responders and medical personnel in emergency medical care, including Stop the Bleed training, care for chemical and biological attacks, trauma and life support, and training in mass casualty events. The two-week trip was organized by International Medical Corps and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative.

Rempell and his wife discussed the risks, and he said she was supportive of the mission. His oldest child, who's 7, understood some of the danger but they also wanted, he said, "to balance (the risk) but also show them the values we have as parents." It wasn't an entirely new calculus, though, for a couple who both worked in healthcare throughout the pandemic, especially in its early, frightening months.

The reputations of two sponsoring organizations, Rempell said, was one of the reasons he decided to go on the mission, even though the father of two young children understood the risks. Though he said it was a little quieter while he was in Ukraine, the group stayed in Kiev, as well as the eastern city of Dnipro, closer to the Russian border — and to the fighting.

"It's heated up since I've been back," Rempell said. "We traveled through Kyiv but I was mainly in Dnipro. There were bombings pretty consistently."

Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a 36-hour ceasefire in observance of the Orthodox Christmas, but an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed the order as "hypocrisy."

Rempell had undergone International Medical Corps training in the past, and knew how to assess personal risk, how to minimize it and how to respond in potentially dangerous situations. The nonprofit handled transportation and security, and so he felt as safe as could be expected in a country actively under attack.

A Philadelphia resident who's been a doctor in Camden for the last five years, Rempell is used to dire medical emergencies. But, he admits, "what they're going though is absolutely different than anything I will hopefully will ever experience or go through. And there's a little bit of risk in taking this trip, but I know I am coming home in two weeks. These people have been there, in this daily, for up to a year now.

"What often was just in my mind was how random these (military) strikes were, and they're just coming from a distance. There was an app we all had on our phones and whenever there's a missile sighting, it goes off depending on where they think it's going. That was constantly going off, constantly in the background that at any point, really anywhere. Living like that, for people in Ukraine, is so different than anything we see here."

A resident runs past a burning house hit by the Russian shelling in Kherson, Ukraine, on the Orthodox Christmas Eve Friday, Jan. 6, 2023.
A resident runs past a burning house hit by the Russian shelling in Kherson, Ukraine, on the Orthodox Christmas Eve Friday, Jan. 6, 2023.

The courses Rempell and his colleagues offered were part of longer-term training cycles, meant not only for medical professionals but also for civilians who might find themselves in dire situations. Some were geared toward surgeons or hospital administrators, as well, based on what hospitals and healthcare workers of Ukraine requested from the two sponsoring organizations.

"It was such a spectrum of people, which made it a really satisfying experience, people from all walks of life," Rempell said. "There was a whole family, three generations, a woman who was an anesthesiologist, she brought her daughter who's a paramedic and her grandson who's a student. They all adapted their roles during the conflict to do whatever they could."

Civilians who took Stop the Bleed training were "people who'd just witnessed enough and were just looking to be able to provide any type of response if they saw a bombing. They were, I don't want to say eager, but more than I would have expected, to share their experiences."

Rempell, who teaches residents at Cooper, has a background not only in emergency medicine but also a master's in public health and a longtime interest in global health.

"I'm very fortunate to work at Cooper. People are drawn to work in this community and I'm constantly amazed by what some of my colleagues are doing for Camden," he said. "I think I've always had some interest in the world and what happens, and I think this conflict in Ukraine has drawn a lot of people's attention to how horrible what's happening. I just wanted to spread some of the skills I have to other settings."

He'd never been in an active war zone before, so Rempell admitted he wasn't sure what to expect.

"The days where there were a lot of bombings going off, and we're living under a different protocol than a lot of the Ukrainian people we're training," he remembered. "People would literally wait hours for training so we realized we'd have to adapt, so we'd do training in shelters. People came and they wanted training, and we were there to give it. The resolve of the participants to stay with it ... people just were very appreciative and there was such positivity. People would wait, and we would figure it out ― much like we do with emergency medicine here in Camden."

Ukraine donations, aid information

Phaedra Trethan has been a reporter and editor in South Jersey since 2007 and has covered Camden and surrounding areas since 2015, concentrating on issues relating to quality of life and social justice for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. She's called South Jersey home since 1971. Contact her with feedback, news tips or questions at ptrethan@gannettnj.com, on Twitter @wordsbyPhaedra, or by phone at 856.486-2417.

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This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: South Jersey doc goes to Ukraine to offer training in war-torn nation