Surgeon describes evacuating Fox’s Benjamin Hall from Ukraine after injury

A surgeon who helped evacuate Fox correspondent Benjamin Hall after he was severely injured in Ukraine while covering the Russian invasion described getting the reporter stabilized and safely out of Ukraine.  

Richard Jadick, a trauma surgeon and Navy veteran, said he was contacted by Save Our Allies, a group providing aid and assistance to Americans and allies in harms way behind enemy lines during war, and was asked to help evacuate Hall. 

Hall was injured last week in an attack that killed Fox cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and local Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra Kuvshynova. Ukrainian government officials have blamed Russian forces for the attack, which happened just outside the capital city, Kyiv.

“When I first saw Ben, I had gone upstairs with the Ukrainian orthopedic surgeon,” Jadick said during an appearance on Fox News on Wednesday afternoon. “I really can’t say enough about this guy, this orthopedic surgeon, who had one — had one ex fix, little bit of K-wire, things that you do to fix bones. And he looked at me and he said: ‘That’s all I got. And I hope it’s OK.'”

Jadick said the same surgeon would stand guard over the location Hall was in with an AK-47 at night and operate on the reporter during the day. 

“And we were going to do some cases the next morning together. And he — we got the word we had to get out that night. So I went back and said: ‘Ben, we’re moving,'” he said. 

Jadick didn’t divulge exactly how Hall was evacuated to Germany because of security concerns, but said “one of the hallmarks of evacuating a patient” is they often “get worse under rough conditions getting out of a bad situation.” 

“And so we worked hard at putting together the right scenario to get him out safely,” he added. “And I would really want to, my hat’s off to the guys I was with who put that all together. Save Our Allies are the ones who had us in the right position to be able to do for Ben what he needed, which is a safe, easy recovery.” 

Fox said in its most recent update last week that Hall was “alert and in good spirits” following his evacuate from Ukraine, adding he was getting “the best possible care in the world” for his injuries. 

The attack on the Fox crew came just days after an American photographer and videographer, Brent Renaud, was killed in Ukraine and another journalist was injured covering Russia’s ongoing invasion.