'We call her Mother Teresa': Johnstown native helping refugees fleeing Ukraine

Mar. 30—Johnstown native Dr. Teresa Wolff is at the Poland-Ukraine border, helping Ukrainian refugees and coordinating deliveries of medical supplies to areas hit hardest by Russia's attacks.

"They are asking for a lot of IV supplies — fluids, catheters, infusion sets, medicines and stuff for the kids' hospitals," said Wolff, a family physician. "The hospital we talked to, they are trying to channel things to places that need them."

She spoke to The Tribune- Democrat after having just returned to a refugee center in Poland from a hospital in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.

Russian rockets struck Lviv on Saturday, wounding five people and damaging a military factory.

On Tuesday, Wolff said she was staying at a refugee center, a school building in Shehyni, on the Ukraine side of the Ukraine-Poland border — about an hour's drive from Lviv.

People are constantly arriving, she said.

"A few have been here for a while because they are hoping for some kind of clearance to be able to leave Ukraine," she said. "Men between ages 18 and 60 aren't allowed to leave because they may need them for fighting."

Nearly 4 million Ukrainians have fled their homes for safety in other countries since Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24.

About two weeks ago, the first refugee Wolff met when she arrived in Ukraine was a young girl named Anna, whose name is almost the same as Wolff's granddaughter in Johnstown.

Wolff grew up in Johnstown and attended Our Mother of Sorrows Catholic School and Bishop McCort Catholic High School.

With a plan for a year of mission work, she left the United States for Mexico as a single person in 1984.

In Queretaro, Mexico, she met her husband, Gustavo Barron, so she stayed there to attend medical school and started a family. She returned to the United States for some time in the 2000s for a residency with Conemaugh Health System.

Wolff, 60, left her home in Queretaro for Ukraine on March 14, making a stop in the United States to meet with family and gather supplies.

Wolff's daughter, Brigette (Barron) Barbin, 33, lives in Johnstown with her husband, Brad, and their 1-year-old daughter, Anne.

Wolff's son, Emiliano Barron, lives in Atlanta, Georgia. He started a Gofundme page to raise money for supplies that his mother said Ukrainian frontline workers need most.

"Several times she was in Lviv right before it was bombed," Brigette said.

"It's scary, but every time I see someone new, they tell me they are praying for her. The overwhelming feeling is hope, even though you look in the news and hear my mom's stories of things going wrong. ... But to see the number of volunteers helping, and the number of people praying for her — it's very nice."

'If it is God's will ...'

Wolff began planning her travel to Ukraine after hearing a story of people who opened their homes to some Ukrainian orphans.

"I contacted the people who came over bringing those orphans, and through them I got to an order of nuns that are Greek-Ukrainian here at the border of Ukraine and Poland," she said. "I contacted them and they said, 'Oh yeah, come over.' So that's how I got here. ... I'm here doing whatever I think God wants me to do. That was part of the reason I offered. I said, 'If it is God's will for me to be here, then doors would be opened.' "

Refugees have been pouring out of trains to border towns in Poland, including Przemysl, where Wolff has been spending a lot of time.

At the centers where Wolff has been working, refugees stay for a day or two to rest and eat. But at the center where she works on the Ukrainian side of the border, people sometimes stay longer as they wait for clearance to leave Ukraine. Then, they are sent to cities and countries farther away from the violence, she said.

"They are leaving their country afraid," she said. "They have no idea where they are going. They are going to places where they are not going to be able to speak their own language.

"They've got little kids who are crying because they are leaving their things behind, and the father, the husband, is left behind, so they have no idea what is going to happen with them."

She said she's now seeing people from war zones in eastern Ukraine try to find homes in Ukraine's west, and some refugees are returning from other countries.

"I guess they get to a new country with a new language, new customs ... and they don't have jobs or money," she said. "They feel that even though things are difficult here, they are with family and friends and at least, and they can try to help out here.

Last Friday, Doctors Without Borders asked Wolff if she wanted to join up with them in Ukraine.

"I'll see what needs to be done. I'm here to help however I can," she said.

"I have a plane ticket back to Mexico at the end of April, but that can be extended if I'm needed here, and if I'm not needed, I can come back earlier. It depends."

'Need medical help'

She was recently working with another volunteer from the United States, a medic named Jason — a retired Marine officer, special operations.

He still works with the government and keeps his last name to himself, he said.

He borrowed Teresa's phone to speak with The Tribune-Democrat. He talked about how beautiful and robust Lviv is, with its architecture and people walking around, almost living in denial, he said.

Sirens, however, warned people of a potential attack.

He said Wolff has had a positive impact on other workers as well as refugees.

"We call her 'Mother Teresa,' " Jason said. "A lot of refugees need medical help. They need reassurance and psychological help for one thing, and medications and all of that. Of course the geriatric group doesn't have the requirements they need. They are having issues with blood pressure, and that's probably the biggest thing, so she's doing anti-anxiety things for them and just spending time with them or checking their blood pressure. ..."

"She's getting them medication for diabetic issues, so they can have some comfort that they can finish their journey and not be concerned they would have a situation where they would go into some sort of systemic failure."

'Anything we can do'

Much of the medicine Wolff has been administering to refugees was donated by F.B. Thomas Drug Store in Meyersdale.

Pharmacy owner Andrew Thomas and his wife, Stephanie, have known Wolff since her residency at Conemaugh hospital years ago.

"She called and said, 'I'm leaving for Ukraine,'" Thomas said. "We went down through a list of things she might need."

Wolff expected to pay for the items, but when her daughter, Brigette, went to pick up the supplies, she learned they had been donated.

"It was a small thing for us," Thomas said. "Anything we can do to help Teresa. I was shocked when she said she was going to Ukraine, but for Teresa, it made perfect sense. She is a saint, a tremendously giving person."

After a phone interview, Wolff sent a text message with something she wanted to add.

"We must all pray for peace," she said. "Not only in Ukraine, but in our own families and communities. Prayer is the most powerful weapon we have.

"God can change our hearts."