On the forefront of emergency medicine

What Anton Atroshyn loves most about his job is a specific moment: coming home after a long shift, exhausted but carrying the feeling of having done his duty.

“It’s as if the day wasn’t lived in vain,” Anton explains. “You saved someone’s life, performed 80 per cent of what was necessary during their resuscitation, got them to the hospital, and then, during a week or two or three, you drop by the emergency room to ask how they’re doing. They tell you, ‘All good’. Believe me, that makes it all worthwhile.”

Anton Atroshyn, 29, is an emergency medical technician (EMT) in Chernihiv, in northern Ukraine. He used to work abroad, repairing cars, until his visa expired. He returned to Chernihiv to wait out for a few months, but then COVID struck, and the borders closed. One day, friends suggested: “Why don’t you work as an ambulance driver for a while?” Over time, Anton stopped waiting for the borders to reopen. Working in the Chernihiv ambulance service became his life calling.

Anton is part of the 11th Emergency Medical Team at the Chernihiv Oblast Centre for Emergency Medical Care and Disaster Medicine. He had been quickly gaining experience but soon realised that COVID was not the greatest challenge. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Chernihiv was under siege for 41 days. Anton lived at work.

“If I said I wasn’t scared, I’d be lying. You’d be driving to a call with a Russian plane flying overhead. You’d squint, wondering whether it had dropped something or not,” he says. As the driver, his top priority is to deliver the patient to the hospital or the medical team to the scene via the shortest and safest route.

When a shell struck a residential building, Anton first encountered a traumatic amputation — transporting a man who had his leg torn off. On another call, the team came under fire just as they exited a building. They sheltered in the corridor, behind two walls, along with residents. A wall collapsed 15 metres from Anton then.

Even now, his team’s calls are often linked to the war. However, the cases vary widely, from non-urgent incidents to traffic accidents, stab wounds, or gunshot injuries. The ability to react quickly to critical situations is vital.

With health care reform underway in Ukraine, all ambulance drivers were required to qualify as EMTs — medical professionals who provide urgent care outside hospital settings or en route to them. In Chernihiv Oblast, the first group of drivers was selected from the most motivated candidates. Anton volunteered for the training, organised under the flagship ‘EU4Recovery – Empowering Communities in Ukraine’ partnership between UNDP and the EU.

The training, held at the Sumy Medical College, enabled him to contribute even more to his team and save lives.

Anton has already applied his new skills multiple times. Now, when his team initiates resuscitation efforts, he understands the sequence of actions precisely. The paramedic sets up an IV line, the doctor performs tracheal intubation to secure the airway, and Anton administers chest compressions during the critical first 6–8 minutes of resuscitation. These minutes are crucial.

“We’ve divided our roles. On the way to a call involving an unconscious patient, for instance, we agree in advance: I’ll handle compressions first, then switch with the paramedic. The doctor monitors the heart rhythm, prescribes medications, and we carry out their instructions. Sometimes adrenaline needs to be administered. I know exactly where it’s kept in the bag, how to prepare it, how to inject it, and how to flush the vein. They say, ‘Adrenaline!’ and I do it. That’s how we work,” Anton explains.

On one occasion in Chernihiv, Anton’s team responded to a call about a woman who had fallen from the window of a ninth-floor flat onto the roof of an annex. There was no immediate access to her, so rescuers quickly suggested climbing a ladder to reach the roof. That day, Anton was working with female paramedics, who would have struggled with the climb. So, it was done by the driver, Anton Atroshyn, who, thanks to his training, is now an EMT. He assessed the woman’s condition, fitted a cervical collar, and secured her on a vacuum mattress. When the police helped to open a neighbour’s balcony, the patient was carried to the ambulance. She survived.

This is just one episode in Anton’s work, but without the advanced EMT expertise, the outcome could have been very different.