{"id":165318,"date":"2022-09-16T13:54:05","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T23:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=165318"},"modified":"2022-09-16T13:55:50","modified_gmt":"2022-09-16T23:55:50","slug":"jabsom-physician-ukraine-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2022\/09\/16\/jabsom-physician-ukraine-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"JABSOM<\/abbr> physician lends aid in Ukraine’s war zone"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"andy
Andy Oishi takes a photo in front of the Ukrainian flag at the Motherland Monument in Kyiv, Ukraine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Andy Oishi<\/strong> has been known to take his gift of healing to war-torn countries and areas impacted by disaster. He has been a physician for the last 26 years at Kuakini Medical Center and Queen\u2019s Medical Center, and is an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at M\u0101noa John A. Burns School of Medicine<\/a> (JABSOM<\/abbr>).<\/p>\n

Oishi, a JABSOM<\/abbr> alumnus, has taken part in humanitarian missions as part of Samaritan\u2019s Purse, an organization that aids hurting people around the world. He has administered surgical care in the Battle of Mosul in Iraq in 2017 and treated patients when Haiti was struck by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in 2021. As part of the organization\u2019s Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART<\/abbr>), Oishi helps respond to crises, and aids victims of war, natural disasters, disease and famine.<\/p>\n

His latest assignment took him to Ukraine in June to provide medical aid to those affected by the war, which required Oishi to be deployed for a month.<\/p>\n

Overcoming, adapting to challenges<\/h2>\n
\"oishi
Oishi on the bus to Ukraine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During his travels to his primary assignment, including a 22-hour flight and 24-hour bus ride, Oishi faced yet another obstacle.<\/p>\n

“It was fifteen hours into the bus ride that I was starting to get that sick COVID feeling,” Oishi recalled. “My first five days in Ukraine were hard because I was in COVID isolation and trying to work, but I was in a foreign country. I didn\u2019t know the language and I couldn\u2019t get a translator because I was considered infectious.”<\/p>\n

Once out of COVID-19 isolation, Oishi was ready to get to work, but soon realized the mission had changed. The leaders of his mission pivoted his role to distribute medical supplies instead.<\/p>\n

“It was kind of an interesting experience because in previous DARTs, I had been deployed to do trauma surgery or acute medical care,” Oishi said. “But the war in Ukraine transitioned quickly. [The Ukranians] actually put [up] a big fight and pushed Russia out of the central part of the country, and Ukraine became quite stable very quickly, except for the eastern and southern areas where Russia had occupied. There was a huge need for supplies for all the medical facilities in the occupied zones.”<\/p>\n

By the time Oishi left Ukraine, Samaritan\u2019s Purse had distributed 200 metric tons of medical supplies. Though Oishi had no knowledge of the Ukrainian language, there were translators who were able to communicate with the local community they were engaging with.<\/p>\n

To accomplish his work, Oishi had to develop skills that he normally doesn\u2019t use in his practice: contacting hospital administrators, writing up hospital contracts, and organizing and then delivering supplies to those hospitals. All of these transactions were carried out in the Ukrainian language.<\/p>\n

Danger in the war zone<\/h2>\n
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Oishi dons a bulletproof vest and helmet to protect himself.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile back in Hawaiʻi<\/span>, Oishi\u2019s wife, Laurie Tam<\/strong>, also a JABSOM<\/abbr> alumna, received this text from her husband: “Missiles hit the city where we are. We are hiding in a basement.” They later discovered that at least three people were killed and 15 were injured in the attack.<\/p>\n

Tam said, “I waited for a while, then a few hours later, I texted him, ‘Are you okay?’ My friends and family hoped that the reason he was not replying was because he was down in a basement with no wi-fi. And then it became hours where I didn\u2019t hear from him.”<\/p>\n

Oishi later responded that he had fallen asleep in the basement, something they can now look back on and laugh about. He added that his team had spent their time in the basement having deep conversations and building camaraderie.<\/p>\n

“For me, the missiles and the bombs were never the biggest concern,” said Oishi, who had prepared for the worst and thought of a game plan with his wife before proceeding with the mission. “The biggest concern was not being able to complete the tasks that I was assigned to.”<\/p>\n

Despite all of the challenges they faced throughout this experience, the couple found peace in their faith in God during this time apart.<\/p>\n

Making an impact with medical knowledge<\/h2>\n

Oishi and Tam encourage their students and residents to use the medical knowledge and skills they learn at JABSOM and find ways to make a difference both here and in other parts of the world.<\/p>\n

“We live in the safest, richest country in the world,” Oishi said. “We think this is how life is, but it\u2019s not really like this in most of the world. Life can be very difficult in those places.”<\/p>\n

He added, “We have all these opportunities to serve and grow our faith, and this was definitely an opportunity where our faith grew.”<\/p>\n

Read more about Oishi\u2019s mission at JABSOM<\/abbr>.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"group
Oishi with some of his teammates from Samaritan\u2019s Purse.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andy Oishi\u2019s latest humanitarian mission took him to Ukraine to provide medical aid to those affected by the war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[90,165,31,9],"class_list":["post-165318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-alumni","tag-health","tag-john-a-burns-school-of-medicine","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165318"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":165348,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165318\/revisions\/165348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}