FROM an interest in sport and nutrition, one recent graduate of University of Limerick’s School of Medicine found himself helping treat casualties of war on the frontline in Ukraine.
Dr Oran McInerney, from Doonbeg, County Clare, was one of over 700 students graduating at the University of Limerick’s summer conferring ceremonies, awarded with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery degree from UL’s Faculty of Education and Health Sciences.
“I always had an interest in health and fitness and originally thought I wanted to become a dietitian. My mother is a nurse, and my granny was a nurse. I saw how they were both always helping people in the community in any way they could, and that definitely inspired me to go as far as I could with my studies,” Dr McInerney said.
Having graduated with a degree in sport and exercise science from UL in 2021, Oran decided to apply for the Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery graduate programme.
“I started medicine because I wanted to use it to volunteer abroad. When the war in Ukraine started, I could not help but think that I should be there helping. Watching people suffer every day on my phone and on TV, I couldn’t stand it,” he says.
Oran was already a qualified emergency medical technician, but in 2023, he went to Denmark to undergo a special course in combat casualty care training.
“A few months later, I found myself outside the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, evacuating injured soldiers before the city fell and delivering wood-burning stoves to elderly villages with no running water or electricity when their houses had been destroyed,” he recalls.
“I’ll never forget them crying and hugging us to thank us, they couldn’t believe I had come all the way from Ireland.”
Oran returned to Ukraine last summer and carried out a third stint after completing his final exams, working with an NGO evacuating heavily injured soldiers from the frontlines.
“I was based eight to 12 kilometres from the frontline. We lived in a bunker with a Ukrainian tank crew. We only worked at night because it was so dangerous. The tank crew would get a call and drive out to the ‘zero line’, the closest point of contact between opposing forces. We would meet them on their way back, drag the injured soldier from the tank, and work on him until we got to the nearest stabilisation point, which was about 30 to 40 minutes away,” the brave Oran recalled.
“Because of the drones, we were always in range of everything, suicide drones the size of cars hit civilian houses 300 metres away from where we were based, huge 1500lbs glide bombs would hit down the field from us or take out the bridge we had just passed over, ballistic missiles and grad missiles would take out our local shops.
“In 2023, I survived a cluster bomb strike that missed me by 200 metres. On my most recent trip, two of our medical evacuation tanks had been destroyed.”
Despite constant threats, Oran’s medical training kept him grounded.
“I used my medical training every day in some form, particularly the ability it problem solve in high pressure situations and by staying cool, calm, and collected,” he said modestly.
“I would also like to thank the Ukrainians I had the honour of working with, some of whom are no longer with us, for their teaching and inspiration.”
