INDIANAPOLIS — Dr. Chris Brandenburg, on sabbatical from IU Health, saw an opportunity and seized it: a chance to combine his faith and his skill to care for people in need.
In Lviv, Ukraine, just across the border from Poland, the ER doctor is now helping families fleeing a war zone.
"It's heartbreaking," Brandenburg said of what he's witnessed in Ukraine. "You just can't imagine what they have been through."
Brandenburg talked with 13News from what's essentially a concrete bunker, with barely-there WiFi, about the medical mission he felt compelled to take.
He left his family in Lafayette to spend 25 days working for the Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse.
"If I don't go, who's gonna go? I had the time. I have the skill set. You know, if a guy like me doesn't go help these people, who's going to help them? That's just been on my heart the whole time I've been here," Brandenburg said.
He's part of a medical team of doctors and nurses at a 58-bed unit emergency field hospital, where refugees get critical care. There are thousands of them, mostly women and children, who were forced from their homes by Russian armies.
Ukrainian husbands and fathers stayed behind to help in the fight to preserve their country.
The refugees arrive at the hospital after days on foot, carrying whatever they could hold.
"We're seeing tons of women and children from Kyiv who've been able to get out. They have whatever possessions they can carry on their back or in their purse or backpack," Brandenburg explained. "The little kids were usually carrying like one toy or one prized possession, and I can't tell you how many little girls I saw carrying Barbie dolls, little boys carrying Mickey Mouse. It was heartbreaking."
RELATED: Father talks about saying goodbye to family who fled to Poland while he stayed behind in Ukraine
Most of the medical issues he's treating are patients whose chemotherapy or surgeries got canceled because of the conflict or people whose illnesses got worse with their doctors displaced in the war.
He said there are battle wounds from trauma, too.
"I've certainly talked to lots of patients that were involved in a building that was bombed or you know the building next door was bombed," Brandenburg said. "There are shrapnel injuries, people with broken bones from running from bombs or missiles."
But he's also witnessed generosity: families given donations and shelter and prayer.
"Thousands of items," Brandenburg said. "I saw diapers and strollers, pillows and blankets and just the Polish people have been so generous giving shelter to people."
Brandenburg is giving of his time and expertise. Traveling to help the sick was something this Hoosier physician felt called to do, even in a war zone.
He'll be in Ukraine for two more weeks and said he's thankful for the prayers he's received from family and friends back home in Indiana.
To learn more about Samaritan's Purse and its mission in Ukraine, click here.