My Trip to Ukraine

By Tony Hernandez

In early October I went to Europe. More specifically, I went on a dual humanitarian mission focused on helping the people of Ukraine.The first and most important part was being an escort for a great-grandmother to honor her fallen US Marine son who died near the Russo-Ukrainian War frontlines. The second part was to help people with hemophilia, von Willebrand Disease (vWD), and other bleeding disorders.

The grandmother I was escorting is a coworker of mine, Sochi. Her son, USMC Ian Tortorici, was killed Jun 27, 2023 when a short-range ballistic missile hit where he was having dinner. 

In the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, there is a monument called The Maiden. Outside The Maiden is an organic memorial. Literally thousands upon thousands of flags and photographs of the fallen. We visited Ian’s makeshift memorial there. We also visited his church where he prayed and worshiped since he converted to the Ukrainian Church and there’s a picture of him along with the other hundreds of dead parishioners. Finally, we visited his memorial at the WW2 Museum. Not only did we honor Ian, we also attended the American funeral of a 22-year-old U.S National Guardsmen. 

The second reason I was there was to help the bleeding disorders community. We reached out to the Ukrainian Association for Haemophilia and Haemostasis and they introduced me to my fellow blood brothers and sisters. But that wasn’t all. Sochi and I brought along some factor medication to donate to the people of Ukraine. This was done through the amazing work of Save One Life.

Save One Life provided so much factor that, my carryon was nothing but factor and my toothbrush. Seriously. The factor was then distributed to three different families in three different regions of Ukraine. One such factor delivery was sent to a young man who was recovering from surgery. Had it not been for the generous donation from Save One Life, that young man may not have been here with us today. I have no words.

To clarify one thing, Save One Life has official partners around the world. Right now, Ukraine is not one of them because before the war, access to treatment and medication was largely available. However, as a consequence of the war, medication has become more scarce. 

Save One Life could have easily said, “Ukraine is not an official partner at this time. So we cannot help.” Totally acceptable and understandable. Instead, Save One Life did help and tremendously so. Save One Life literally helped change and better the financial situation of a nation under invasion for at least three months if not more. Think about that. Save One Life’s donation helped ease the massive burden of helping those with life threatening illnesses. Their donation helped defray medical costs across an entire nation’s medical system. Their donation helped Ukrainian medical staff focus more attention on the wounded.

In short, Save One Life has saved several lives and helped ease the burden of those under attack in Ukraine, all because people donated their unneeded medication to them. They didn’t just help, they helped change the world into a better place. 

I close by saying thank-you to Save One Life, but that feels terribly inadequate. There just aren't enough words in the English language to truly explain the Earth shaking good work that Save One Life does for the bleeding disorders community. The impact was clear on our blood brothers and sisters trying to navigate during these challenging times.