Trauma clinic Murnau takes in war wounded from Ukraine - and expects a wave of other patients

Created: 05/19/2022, 10:07 am

By: Silke Reinbold-Jandretzki

Renowned supra-regional trauma center: the professional association accident clinic Murnau.

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Since the outbreak of war in the Ukraine, some of the injured have also been taken to the Murnau Accident Clinic.

The clinic management expects many more patients.

Murnau

- You reach Murnau with serious gunshot and shrapnel injuries, burns, infected wounds: The accident clinic treats Ukrainians who sometimes suffered serious injuries in the Ukraine war.

So far, their number has been limited.

But the medical director Prof. Dr.

Fabian Stuby assumes that "another wave will come our way".

Four Ukrainians, one woman and three men, are currently being treated in isolation in the septic ward of the Murnau accident insurance clinic (BGU) - soldiers and civilians who have suffered serious injuries in the war with which Russia is terrorizing Ukraine.

Murnau accident clinic takes in injured people from the Ukraine war - and expects even more patients

Three were wounded in acts of war - whether as soldiers in uniform or as civilians cannot be said with absolute certainty in all cases.

A woman managed to get to the clinic on her own as a refugee, a man reached Murnau via an independently organized transport;

two wounded came to the BGU via the Bundeswehr.

According to the medical director Prof. Dr.

Fabian Stuby gunshot wounds: One, apparently a soldier, was hit by a bullet in the upper leg and another in the lower leg.

Despite the curfew in Kyiv, he went outside and was shot at by a patrol.

Stuby knows that the injured person cannot tell whether it was a Russian or a Ukrainian.

Fate struck particularly tragically for a non-army man.

He is paraplegic.

After a shot in the back.

Murnau accident clinic: Ukrainians treat the consequences of a bombing

In addition, the accident clinic treated seven Ukrainians on an outpatient basis, sometimes the therapy is still ongoing - six civilians and one person with a war injury.

They were allowed to leave the clinic again because the injuries turned out to be not too complicated.

"There were scalds or burns," says Stuby - consequences of a bombing.

The doctors see bullet wounds, shrapnel wounds and burns as typical war injuries.

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Murnauer Klinik: The number of patients from Ukraine is still limited

The Murnau accident clinic, a supra-regional trauma center that offers cutting-edge medicine, is a top address for the most serious cases. The number of people who were wounded in the war in Ukraine and are brought to the BGU is still limited.

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"It's significantly less than we expected," says Stuby.

"The announcement is that we should get more." He assumes that relatively few of the injured can be transported from Ukraine and that the majority will have to be treated on site.

From conversations with colleagues, Stuby knows that the situation in comparable clinics is no different.

The accident clinic in Murnau sees itself as prepared for more war casualties - but not indefinitely

Experts, including those in the German Society for Trauma Surgery, believe that the seriously injured cannot be adequately cared for in Ukraine.

"That's why we're still assuming that a wave will come our way," emphasizes Stuby.

"It's difficult to say when and how many patients."

To a certain extent, the trauma clinic is prepared for this: "We can treat these patients here, but we can't take in 100 at once." A kind of distribution pattern exists via the trauma network of the German Society for Trauma Surgery, according to which severely injured people are assigned to qualified hospitals.

Gunshot wounds and trauma: Injured from the Ukraine war for treatment in Bavaria

As a supra-regional trauma center, the Murnau Accident Clinic is in the forefront.

Stuby assumes that private contacts, the high profile of his company and word of mouth also played a role in injured Ukrainians heading to the BGU.

Their large septic department comes into play in the case of gunshot wounds.

In particular, if they do not receive medical care for days, "of course infections develop," explains Stuby.

In addition, the BG clinics cooperate with the Bundeswehr, there are close contacts.

When a plane with injured people from the Ukraine landed in Memmingen the week before last, who were then distributed, a patient came to Murnau.

Murnau accident clinic: Patients from war zones must be isolated

All four of those affected in the BGU brought a problem with them: multi-resistant germs in the wounds and on the body.

You know these cases from countries like Ukraine and Romania, says Stuby.

That is why the patients are also in the isolation ward.

They are not in mortal danger.

But: “Theoretically, it is not yet possible to make a prognosis about the healing process of injuries to the extremities.

You can't say whether that will result in an amputation," emphasizes Stuby.

And "of course" these people are without exception traumatized, "no question".

They would need psychological care - and in turn would be at the right address in the BGU, which has a department for psychotraumatology.

But there is a high language barrier, which generally complicates many things.

“You would have to have someone who can translate all of this,” says the medical director.

"If the people can speak German, then that's not a problem." There aren't many employees in the clinic who can speak Ukrainian.

The patients, on the other hand, often have no knowledge of English, "but have only heard that there is a hospital here".

A list shows employees who speak foreign languages ​​- in some cases this is Russian, which often helps.

And some patients bring companions who can get on with English.

Murnau accident clinic treats war wounded from the Ukraine - no money is yet available for the treatment

No one is turned away, insured or not.

If a seriously injured person announces itself, the remuneration does not play a role at first.

"These are patients who need help." There is still no money for the BGU to treat injured Ukrainians - but Stuby knows of a ministry assurance that "this will be handled in some way".

But right now there are more important things.

You can find more current news from the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen at Merkur.de/Garmisch-Partenkirchen.