Medical Ministry in War Zones
LEAP volunteers like Dr. Clanton Harrison provide surgical help in Ukraine
After Russia invaded Ukraine again in 2022, LEAP Global Missions found a way to help Ukrainian hospitals with surgical support and bring some patients to the U.S. for specialized care.
“While I was there, there were two occasions where we heard air raid sirens,” Dr. Clanton Harrison said.
The Highland Park resident is among the LEAP medical volunteers who have traveled to Ukraine to offer expert advice and support doctors in war zones.
“But the country has an app called Telegram,” he said. “And when those air raid sirens go on, all the people in the country look at their phones and see where the danger is. And it was never in the area in which we were located while we were there.”
During its March mission, LEAP, a Dallas-based Christian ministry that provides medical care worldwide, established an ongoing relationship with Ohkhmatdyt Lviv Regional Children’s Hospital.
Harrison spent his most recent trip in Lviv working with pediatric surgeons. Doctors are sent with everything but the operating room table, Harrison explained. And from what he gathered, supplying the hospitals with necessary equipment made a difference.
“I think the people there were appreciative of the fact that we cared enough about them to show up in a war zone and to affirm them,” he said. “We worked alongside them and affirmed that what they were doing was good medicine.”
LEAP was able to fly Anna Khomiak, a Ukrainian girl with a tumor in her jaw, to Texas for reconstruction.
Anna and Ukrainian plastic surgeon Dr. Christina Pohranychna attended an April gala hosted by Amy and Evan Beale, Highland Park residents and LEAP board members, at the Dallas Country Club.
Evan Beale hasn’t been to Ukraine but has traveled abroad with LEAP.
“It’s an eye-opening experience, like going to places where, you know, a lot of people just don’t have very common things that we have every day,” he said. “But the ability to help those people is rewarding and fulfilling.”
Amy Beale is proud of the organization’s efforts to build relationships with those in other nations.
“It’s all done with love,” she said. “I would want people to know that there are doctors, nurses, techs, who selflessly give of themselves, and they are just so fulfilled.”
