“What the f*** am I doing here? Why am I doing this?” the former NHS care assistant cursed as he was shaken awake by four huge explosions on Ukraine’s frontline.
Moments later as smoke and falling debris cleared, a cacophony of sirens, car alarms and cries from wounded soldiers and civilians filled the air.
Doug SeeburgA Brit medic is helping save lives in Ukraine[/caption]
ReutersThe doctor formally worked for the NHS, pictured destruction in Ukraine[/caption]
It was a sound all too familiar to the 25-year-old medic from south east England honoured with a special nickname by comrades for saving lives for nearly three years in the trenches.
It was time for “Doc Brit” to conquer his fear yet again and go to work.
The bespectacled young hero – who we cannot identify – was an NHS healthcare assistant working on hospital wards when Russia invaded Ukraine in February, 2022.
Watching Vladimir Putin’s forces’ brutal invasion on TV news, he suddenly felt compelled to help Ukraine and volunteered to join a humanitarian convoy heading to Kyiv.
Former Army cadet “Doc” – whose dad was an SAS medic and mum was an army truck driver – volunteered to become a frontline paramedic
And after nearly three years of carnage that followed, he revealed he has both saved – and taken – lives as a medic and rifleman at the sharp end of Vladimir Putin’s war.
He told The Sun: “I’m primarily a combat paramedic now but Ukraine is so short of soldiers I take part in assaults as well.
“I’m from a big military family and was in the Army Cadets from the age of 10-18, where I learned to handle weapons.
“I now carry an M4 assault rifle or a Kalashnikov into battles and open fire when I have to.
“I can’t be sure that I’ve ever actually killed a Russian but it’s very likely that I have during firefights.
“It’s not something I want to do but in those situations it’s ‘us of them’ – I’ve opened fire on undergrowth where they’re shooting from and kept firing till they stopped.
“But there’s no time to stop and do body counts – you have to keep moving forward if you can.”
Doc joined forces with two other Brit volunteer medics in Ukraine at the start of the war and stayed on after his pals both decided to return to the safety of their old lives.
I’m needed here much more than the NHS needs me back home
The doctor
But he has since forged close links with a battle-hardened group of foreign fighters dubbed The Chosen Company, who specialise in assaulting Russian trenches.
The unit – comprising Britons, Americans, Australians and recruits from across Europe – has posted graphic video of bloody firefights.
And Doc admitted he has come to question why he has fought on after losing six pals – including his best friend – in the continuing “meat grinder” carnage.
He told The Sun: “There’s not a day I don’t ask myself: ‘Why don’t I just go home and watch all of this on my phone or the telly like everyone else?’
“But then I realise I’m needed here much more than the NHS needs me back home.
“It’s been painful losing so many close friends over the past couple of years – three were killed by Russian drones, two by mortars and another was captured and executed.
“My best mate was an ex-US Marines machine gunner called Lance who was killed by a drone last year…he was 28.
“We bonded because we shared the same sense of humour and kept smiling through so many close shaves – but he got unlucky and his time was up.
“It’s a risk we all run out here but if we don’t fight, who else will hold the line against the Russians?”
Doc reckons he has saved dozens of lives treating battlefield trauma wounds under fire.
He said: “I’m always extra cautious going into battle because I know that if I get hit I won’t be able to treat anyone else – and may not be able to treat myself.
“I can never be sure whether my seriously wounded casualties make it – my job is to stabilise them before they’re evacuated to a field hospital.
I ran towards the wounded and found a soldier sitting upright with his right leg missing from above the knee – it was lying about ten feet away from him
The doctor
“But I’ve treated so many battlefield casualties I’d like to think I’ve saved dozens of lives in the time I’ve been here.
“I’ve treated soldiers but also a lot of civilians – the Russians don’t care who they kill.”
Doc has witnessed unimaginable horrors with both the Chosen Company and his previous unit, a volunteer battalion of Ukraine’s 49th Infantry Brigade dubbed “The Suicide Squad.”
But his worst single mass casualty event was an attack in the Kharkiv region town of Barvinkove early in the war – when four Russian bombs tore into a busy street.
He said: “I was about 300 metres away when four huge explosions erupted and knew it was very bad.
“It’s hard to imagine the chaos until you see it – smoke, flames, people with terrible wounds crying out and body parts everywhere.
“I ran towards the wounded and found a soldier sitting upright with his right leg missing from above the knee – it was lying about ten feet away from him.
AFPThe medic has treated many front-line injuries[/caption]
ReutersDoc has witnessed unimaginable horrors in Eastern Europe[/caption]
“He was silent and in shock and I knew he would bleed to death if I didn’t act quickly so I applied a tourniquet and ran on to the next casualty.
“The second man I got to had been peppered with shrapnel and was in agony with deep holes up one side of his body – I packed his wounds then ran on to the next…
“That was a guy with horrendous burns to his face and chest – it was like a horror movie.”
Doc said he applied six or seven life-saving tourniquets that day as he dashed among dead and dying trying to prioritise scores of casualties.
But nothing could prepare him for the sight of one man he found amid the bloodbath who’d had half his face blown off.
Doc said: “I’m obviously not squeamish and have seen a lot of terrible things out here.
We can’t let the Russians win
The doctor
“But I’ve always had a strange phobia about treating eyes – I would ask someone else to give people eye drops when I was working in the NHS.
“So it was my worst nightmare when I came across this poor man with half of his face gone and his eye ball hanging down
“It was obviously a shocking thing to see but I tried hard not to show it and comfort him and tell him he was going to be ok.
“I could only bandage him as best as I could then move on – but I still wonder how he’s getting on and what he might look like now.”
Brave Doc pledged to steel himself and stay on and fight for Ukraine for “as long as it takes” yesterday.
He said: “I’m not one of those people who can sit back home in the UK watching Ukraine war videos on their phones.
I don’t want to be the guy who sits on the sidelines and does nothing when terrible things are happening – you have to make things change.
“And we can’t let the Russians win.”
ReutersRussian strikes hit Ukraine[/caption]
EPATroops man an artillery position in Kharkiv[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
