After two weeks touring Israel with Catherine, I flew directly to Vinnytsia Ukraine. Meetings with dear friends.
First photo is with Lyudmila Sinyavskaya who had her mitral valve replaced in Nashville at Centennial Hospital in 1997 and spent that summer with us.
Then unexpectedly taken for two days to tour the beautiful city of Chernivtsi in southwestern Ukraine.
Now back in Vinnytsia before traveling Saturday to lecture in Ternopil and then Uzhorod.

Here are some photos of beautiful Chernivtsi sites and lastly photos of the ancient fortress in Kaminyets Poldillski. Please note that in the city center there is a beautiful cross memorializing those lost in 2014 at Maidan. Second photo.
It stands where there used to be a statue of Lenin. I told our tour guide we could not put up such a cross in America today at a public owned site. He was shocked.

This 2019 ACEP Ambassador and Colleagues trip will center around two events, hosted by Dr. Vitaliy Krylyuk, ACEP Liaison for Ukraine and his colleague Dr. Ivan Kuzminsky:

1) An annual nationwide EMS Rally with several nearby countries also invited…in Uzhorod, Ukraine (westernmost Ukraine) from June 5-June 7. I will be joined by fellow EM/Cardiology/ACEP Int’l member…. expert Dr. Magnus Simonsson of Sweden as lecturers on the first day, then joining in with our Ukraine colleagues as they compete at Mock Disaster scenes and are scored on their performances. Over 40 Ambulance teams will participate in this EMS Rally, after the first day of lectures.

2) 1st Annual Simulation Medicine Conference in Ternopil, Ukraine June 2 and 3. Ternopil now has Ukraine’s leading Simulation Medicine Center, under the leadership of colleagues and friends, Drs. Arsen Gudima and Galya Tsimbalyuk.  I will have the joy of presenting an EKG workshop and discussing Simulation Medicine in the USA, with materials provided me by Cook County Simulation Medicine Director Dr. Michelle Sergel, who planted seeds for Simulation Medicine in Ternopil and Kyiv 5 years ago.

Looking forward to it!!!!!

The “sequel” will be to have Drs. Krylyuk and Kuzminsky join me to ACEP 19 in Denver in October…..