Damage Control Resus - Ukraine

Over the past fortnight, the College has been in Ukraine running the DCR-U course for Combat Medics, working on the front line. We were mid-lecture when the Russian missiles hit the paediatric cancer centre in Kyiv. We were many kilometres away from the impact, but it still affected us. One of the faculty had the windows in his flat blown out, and the building next to his was destroyed. Several children died in that building. Many of the students had friends and family in Kyiv. This is just one of the attacks that Ukraine endures each day.

The College of Remote and Offshore Medicine Foundation created the Damage Control Resuscitation—Ukraine course for the TCCC-CMC level. These medics need fundamental DCR skills because they shuttle casualties from the front line to the Stabilisation Points. They need more than just what is taught in the Combat Medic Course. These medics can work in the Stab Points and be the primary providers on the front line.

This four-day course starts where the TCCC CMC ends. The CMC is a requirement for the course. We teach from the Joint Trauma System's Clinical Practice Guidelines. The tccc.org.ua/en website was a profound help with this since all of the guidelines and TCCC content are in English and Ukrainian. We used the DCR in PFC CPG as a baseline. CPG references a lot more, and we taught the students how to use the downloaded app to access additional content whilst treating their casualties.

We have been planning and designing this for several months, and we were profoundly lucky that the TCCC decided to do a data dump on the website with tons of teaching materials for all levels of TCCC and the CPGs.