ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital Senior Director for Regulatory Affairs and Registered Nurse Lisa Prytula said her time volunteering with Ukrainian refugees in Poland was unlike anything she's experienced in her 30-year career in health care.

"It's definitely unprecedented," Prytula said. "I've never experienced such a massive scale of operations. I've never seen thousands of people in such a desperate situation, thousands of people suffering under one roof," Prytula said.

What You Need To Know

  • Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital RN Lisa Prytula returned last month from volunteering with Ukrainian refugees in Poland

  • Prytula spent three weeks providing care in a medical clinic and orphanage

  • She has a special reason for wanting to help - Prytula's parents and grandparents immigrated from Ukraine
  • Prytula says she plans to return later this year

"It's definitely unprecedented," Prytula said. "I've never experienced such a massive scale of operations. I've never seen thousands of people in such a desperate situation, thousands of people suffering under one roof," Prytula said.

Prytula spent three weeks in Poland, from April 15 through May 9, volunteering with the nonprofit International Medical Relief. She worked in a clinic that saw thousands of patients a day and in a Ukrainian orphanage that relocated to Poland.

"The people coming were very sick. They were in a very poor condition, and they had been on their journey for many weeks. Maybe they were hiding in basements or cellars before they had arrived in Poland. So, they were thin and shell shocked and, you know, anxious and weepy and withdrawn," Prytula said.

It didn't end there. Prytula said during 12-plus hour days, she saw patients whose needs ranged from not having needed medications to grossly infected trauma wounds. She was joined in her work by volunteers from around the world. She said those who made the trip through the same nonprofit she did all paid their own way. Prytula raised more than $20,000 through GoFundMe that she said went towards medications and medical and wound care supplies. 

The effort was one close to Prytula's heart. Her family came to the U.S. from Ukraine years ago.

"My grandparents escaped with my parents as children during World War II. They fled on foot, just as the refugees are now, as Russians and Nazis invaded and decimated Ukraine," Prytula said.

"I had to do something," she continued, speaking about the current Russian invasion of Ukraine. "I have family still in Ukraine. I speak Ukrainian. I was raised in a very close-knit Ukrainian community. So, I feel like it's kind of my obligation and my duty to do something to help."

Prytula said she plans to return to Poland to volunteer with refugees later this year.