UPenn doctor returns home after helping set up clinics in Ukraine
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A University of Pennsylvania doctor is back home after spending more than a week in Ukraine. Her team is helping set up clinics in areas that have been destroyed by the war.
An exclusive only on CBS News Philadelphia.
"It always surprises me the resilience of people in conflict," Dr. Nahreen Ahmed said.
Dr. Ahmed is back home in the Delaware Valley after her sixth trip to Ukraine since the Russian invasion 17 months ago.
"The further east you go the roads are worse, you hear actual live artillery," Ahmed said.
Ahmed is an ICU doctor at UPenn. She's also the medical director for MedGlobal a nonprofit that travels the world and helps rebuild healthcare systems after a disaster.
Two weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, her team helped train surgeons on how to treat serious injuries. On this latest trip, she set up mobile clinics in eastern Ukraine.
"These are areas where health infrastructure is almost completely destroyed," Ahmed said. "For me, just hearing those noises over and over again, the oncoming and outgoing artillery, it's extremely jarring to realize you're constantly in danger."
Ahmed says she was only a half mile away when a missile strike killed eight people in the city of Kramatorsk. Her team was set to have dinner there that same night.
"We happened to be running late when we were seeing patients in the village and didn't end up making it to dinner, and had we made it we would not have survived that night," Ahmed said.
In March, CBS News Philadelphia sat down with Ahmed after she traveled to Syria following the deadly 7.5 magnitude earthquake. Despite the danger, she tells us she feels the need to give back, to offer her expertise, and wants the people of Ukraine to know they won't be forgotten.
"It's really saying hey we really need to advocate for peacekeeping and that's so important, and so that's why we go back," Ahmed said. "That's why it's such an important cause and why we continue to stand up for the situation."
Ahmed says she does plan to head back soon for a seventh trip.
