A Ukrainian biomedical scientist talks about her experiences working in a war zone and moving to the UK.
“It was a Thursday and at about 4am I heard the sound of shelling,” says Inesa Iefimova. “From this moment, for three months, I was within the hospital without going outside. It was a very frightening situation. Before this I had never heard the sound of shelling, or rockets exploding. For a week my organs refused me – I was unable to eat and I could only have small drinks.”
Inesa, a 60-year-old Ukrainian biomedical scientist, is remembering 24 February 2022 – the day Russia launched a full-scale assault on Ukraine. Since that moment, over seven thousand civilians (including 438 children) have been killed, while nearly 17.7 million people have fled the country, according to UN statistics.
Inesa says that in the week leading up to the invasion “all the media were describing Russia threatening Ukraine, but we didn’t think anything would happen”. At the time, she was working as Head of the Clinical Diagnostics Laboratory (CDL), heading up a team of 16 at Kharkiv Regional Clinical Trauma Hospital – a 260-bed hospital located 19 miles from the Russian border.
In the coming weeks, while treating injured citizens and soldiers from the Kharkiv region, the hospital was also under attack. It was shelled three times, damaging sections of the roof and the top two levels of the building and destroying a technical area, an operating theatre and the X-ray department. More than 150 hospital windows were blown out by the force of the explosions.
“I gathered myself. I had 16 lab staff behind me and I needed to support and encourage them,” says Inesa. “It was terrible, but I needed to look after my staff – they were my responsibility. Sometimes I would cry, but it would be at night, so no one could see my weakness.”
It was just two of us
Inesa had been the Head of CDL since 1995, a position that she says is very different from the UK equivalent. “In the UK, it is a managerial position, but in Ukraine, it is many jobs in one – I was providing and supervising the implementation of lab quality control and systems, training staff, assisting laboratory staff in interpreting abnormal laboratory tests and working with the doctors.”
She also maintained contact with all suppliers to ensure that the laboratory was continuously supplied with everything necessary for smooth operation.
By March, her job had become far harder. “Many people in my lab were frightened, so we let them go. It was just two of us in the lab – me and my subordinate. I would rest during the day while she worked, and then she would rest at night while I worked. We would sleep on the floor. We had the blinds down and during this time I didn’t see the sky. I didn’t want to see what was out there.”
The only time Inesa would leave the hospital was when she needed to change clothes. She would go home to get them between 11am and 2pm, “when it was usually quiet”. Before the invasion, the hospital had about 400 staff, but this number was reduced to about 150 who were sleeping and working at the hospital. At the same time, the Director organised deliveries of food, water and humanitarian aid packages.
Move to the UK
Since the early 2000s, Inesa had wanted to move to England and had been studying English in Ukraine with a private teacher and flying over twice a year to complete language courses in London. She even completed an IBMS Specialist Diploma and became an IBMS member – the only member in Ukraine.
“The IBMS got in touch and asked what kind of support they could provide for me,” says Inesa. “I thanked them very much, but I didn’t know what kind of support I needed or how this support could reach me – transport, post offices, shops… everything was closed.”
It was not until weeks later in May, when the fighting in and around Kharkiv started to die down that Inesa changed her mind. “At first, we thought that the situation would end in a month, but the situation continued and continued and became harder and harder – it was at the start of May that I wrote to the IBMS and asked if they could help me move to the UK.”
“Sometimes I would cry, but it would be at night, so no one could see my weakness”
The IBMS Council was consulted, and a vacancy was found working for Black Country Pathology in The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust. The training was organised, accommodation was lined up, and they were able to arrange a position for six months. Inesa had a sponsor whom she had kept in touch with after meeting on an IBMS course in the UK in 2020 – Elena Cohen, an Advanced Biomedical Scientist working at the Biochemistry Department of Royal Oldham Hospital, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust. Elena continues to provide assistance support to Inesa in any matters.
“In the summer, the situation became quieter – people started returning home to Ukraine and it became safe to travel, so I went to the UK,” she says. “I had been in the UK many times as a visitor, but now I was going to be here as a resident.”
Life in a new lab
After pulling together all her paperwork, qualifications and accreditations and getting a hepatitis vaccine (which is not needed in Ukraine) Inesa started in the Haematology department at Manor Hospital in Walsall. “I went to the hospital and I started to learn how to use the new equipment. The differences between a UK and Ukrainian lab are the equipment and the processes of how you authorise analysis. But everything was changing for me – how to buy food, what food to buy, where to find things. All the lab staff tried to help me and if I had any questions, I could ask,” she says.
“The first three months were very difficult and sometimes I still struggle to understand the accents of some people, but most people I understand.”
Now that she is settled into her new life and laboratory, does she miss friends and family in Ukraine? “I am alone,” she says. “I have an older sister with two sons, and the youngest grew up with me and is like my son. He has a sponsor in Ipswich and is waiting to see if he gets his visa. But yes, some friends and colleagues I miss.”
Would she ever consider going back to Ukraine when the war is over? “Before coming to the UK, I made the decision that if I was going to do it, then I would do it forever,” says Inesa. “Ukraine is becoming a different country to the country I knew before the war. People have become different. War changed minds and values and so many people lost their homes and became homeless. People lost everything. To return to Ukraine makes no sense.
“I have lost in Ukraine all that I have. Here in the UK, I have to start life from scratch, but it is easier than living and working under constant shelling.”
Image credit | Inesa-Iefimova | Akin-Falope