Philadelphia Doctor Who 'Couldn't Sleep Without' Helping At Ukrainian Border Volunteering At Refugee Camp
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A Philadelphia doctor is at the Ukrainian border volunteering at a refugee camp. The United Nations estimates there could be up to 5 million refugees, and medical personnel from all over the world are lending their support, including a cancer specialist from Philadelphia.
"I couldn't sleep without having to do something," said Dr. Laura Bukavina, a specialist at Fox Chase Cancer Center.
Bukavina is volunteering at a refugee camp in Poland at the border of Ukraine.
"This was a shopping mall. You can still see the stores that have clothes and they're just putting cots everywhere for people," Bukavina said.
Using her phone via Zoom, Bukavina walked Eyewitness News through the facility where hundreds, maybe thousands, of people are camped out.
"So, they're trying to keep the families together if possible," Bukavina said, "For example, you have a lot of women and children in this tent for this subcategory. There's also pets here."
Bukavina is a urologic oncology fellow at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. She's also Ukrainian, so she's able to communicate with the refugees and provide medical assistance.
"They're scared. They're numb. There's very little hope," Bukavina said. "Sometimes it takes about three days on foot to get to the place. So, you're seeing a lot of sort of wear and tear injuries on your body. There's also a lot of hypothermia."
Her colleagues at Fox Chase are gathering and sending supplies, but with tens of thousands of refugees flooding into camps, it's hard to keep up, and because it's a humanitarian crisis, COVID-19 precautions have been waived. Most of the refugees are not vaccinated, and masks aren't required.
"So, there's going to be, probably within the next couple of days a big outbreak of coronavirus within this population," Bukavina said.
Bukavina says health care workers have personal protective equipment.
She says most of the refugees are women and children, ripped apart from other loved ones. Many with nothing and no place to go.
"As a mother of three little boys, as a Ukrainian, as a physician, this breaks my heart," Bukavina said.
Bukavina says her children are being cared for by loved ones and her family that's still in Ukraine, they're also volunteering to help distribute food and water. She says they are all heartbroken, exhausted, but determined to stay strong.
Bukavina started a GoFundMe page to help Ukrainians.