'Nurses needed:' Duke health nurse helps infants in Ukraine as bombs fall nearby

A Duke Health nurse is back home in the Triangle after spending nearly a week at a hospital in Ukraine.

Melissa Babb traveled to the war zone to treat infants in need of heart surgeries.

She told WRAL News about her life-changing experience, and why she's willing to do it all over again.

The idea began from the safety and comfort of her couch. Babb was watching TV with her husband Mitch when she noticed a Facebook post: Nurses needed.

"I looked at him, showed him the post, and he said, 'Go for it,'" she said. "And I said, 'Are you sure?' And he said, 'Yeah, absolutely.'"

The post came from the Novick Cardiac-Alliance. They needed nurses in Ukraine to help with heart surgeries for babies.

Less than three days later, Babb was on the plane headed for Ukraine.

"I felt very at peace with the decision to go. It just felt like the right thing to do," she said.

Turns out, nurse Babb had just the right skill set for this mission.

She went to a hospital in the city of Lviv, where she worked with Ukrainian doctors and nurses whose homes had been flattened.

And yet, with lost homes in the middle of a war, the Ukranian doctors and nurses went about their work.

After all, the babies needed them: Babies born with heart defects, who required major surgery to survive -- even as the world around them bled.

"I know what parents go through here in the United States, watching their kids go through these surgeries. I cannot even fathom that thought with your husband at war, or being bombed or displaced from your home while also going through this," said Babb.

She heard repeated air raid sirens outside the hospital walls.

No matter. The babies needed her.

"We just had a job to do. You didn't have time to think about that kind of stuff. I had to think about what I was doing every second of every day I was there," she said.

Then, in seconds, she was shaken to the core.

A bomb fell six kilometers away.

"I was petrified. I lost it," she said. "And they all looked at me and said 'It's ok. That's far away. That's no big deal.'"

Their words struck her. "Who has to live that way?" she wondered.

Ukrainians are living that way. Even moms worried about their very sick babies.

"I know that we saved their lives," said Babb.

After six days, nurse Babb came home.

Home to her own sweet child, 6-year-old Charlie, who greeted her at the airport.

But those memories of Ukraine will keep tugging at her heart.

"Would I go back? Absolutely," she said.

Her husband, Mitch, is also a Duke nurse -- and is considering a trip to Ukraine himself.

May those babies' hearts be strong, Babb prays. And may they come to know safety and comfort.