Why We Stay

 Healthcare Under Fire: Stories from Healthcare Workers During Armed Conflict 7 and defined genetic alterations for further targeted treatment in Ukraine or abroad. Lastly, our laboratory provided free-of-charge laboratory testing for servicemen of the armed forces of Ukraine and started social action to help people with mental health problems. On June 27, 2023, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Awareness Day, we arranged a conference on PTSD and Post Traumatic Growth (PTG) to promote knowledge about PTSD among general practice physicians and military doctors. The conference gathered more than 300 physicians, psychologists, psychotherapists, psychiatrists, volunteers, social workers, and international experts in the field of mental health. It allowed the attendees to share knowledge and best practices and build a strong professional community in Ukraine committed to helping people with mental health challenges under continuous war-related psychological traumas and uncertainty. We thank all our laboratory staff for their selfless work despite these many challenges and threats. Under such extraordinary conditions, we have been able to keep up with the demand for our services, performing all necessary testing to give patients and physicians timely and precise laboratory diagnostics. Slava Ukraini! Acknowledgement. The authors thank Dr. Emily Anderson, Professor, Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics, Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago for her continuous spiritual and professional support. B Why We Stay Vladyslava Kachkovska, Iryna Dudchenko, Anna Kovchun & Lyudmyla Prystupa W e are a group of physicians and professors in the Department of internal medicine at Sumy State University in Ukraine, located 20 miles from the border with Russia. We have been working together for ten years and, against the background of the war, have become more than colleagues, more than a hematologist , an allergist, a pulmonologist and a rheumatologist . We are now one organism that works for the benefit of patients, coordinating humanitarian supplies, teaching medical students, and at the same time worrying incredibly about our children, but trying to maintain our psychological homeostasis. Over the past year and a half, we have learned many things. Dividing everything that surrounds us into primary and secondary concerns, we learn how to live without electricity during the winter and how to preserve the water supply. We realize material possessions are not important, as at any moment you may lose everything. After covering the basic needs of our families, we do not try to save money, but rather the opposite: we spend all the rest on drugs and supplies for those who are in need now. Of all that we have learned, one thing we have not learned is indifference, which is not possible during this time of constant loss of acquaintances, colleagues, and friends. We find balance only in our constant work. We have patients with medically complex conditions, and we prioritize them and their needs. Our multidisciplinary teamwork before the war brought us great pleasure: interesting clinical cases and successful work with our patients, frequent training abroad, scientific research, and work with medical students and residents. On February 24, 2022, our priorities changed. In addition, each of us faced a dilemma: whether to take our children to a safe place or stay. Balancing our emotional experiences and work is challenging, but mutual support, daily communication, and a heavy workload helps us maintain a sense of normalcy . Still, we are sure this “normal” is adapted to our conditions and will not apply in peacetime. Moreover, since the beginning of the war, we have experienced dissonance between our established moral and bioethical principles, our virtues, and the main goal of medicine—preserving human life and dignity—with the surrounding events caused by the war. Daily deaths of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers, innocent children, domestic animals, 8 Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics • Volume 13 • Number 3 • Winter 2023 abuse, rape of women, children, and older adults, demonstrative torture, the humiliation of human dignity, and criminal behavior of the enemy have altered our worldview. We are challenged by the central ethical and Christian dilemma, which our generation is unlikely to cope with—to accept everything we are going through and forgive. During the last year, we have noticed that the occupation, life in the border area, and daily shelling affect our patients, dividing them into two main...