Jessie Boeckmann was in a Ukrainian hospital room with her newborn baby when she was awakened by the sound of explosives.“What are you doing?”Seconds later, more explosions. It was clear. The city was under attack.
But that was a completely different experience than what the Boeckmanns encountered this time. From the instant the bombs went off, Jesse Boeckmann said, life went “from business as usual — normal, everyday things — to complete chaos.”“We were aware of media reports and were monitoring what was happening,” said Jacob Boeckmann, 40, a plastic surgeon who owns Pacific Coast Facial Plastic Surgery in Laguna Niguel and also works at the UC Irvine Medical Center.
On Thursday, after the explosions, the couple contacted their driver and asked to be picked up ASAP. But the driver’s wife also was pregnant, so he backed out. Still, he got them another driver, Val, who spoke only Russian, forcing them to communicate via a Google translation app.“I told Jacob several times, ‘I don’t understand why this driver doesn’t make us get out of the car and just leave us,” said Jessie, 39, an ophthalmologist with Acuity Eye Group in Costa Mesa.
They faced a decision. They still had about eight miles to reach the border, and the air was below freezing. But travel by automobile was no longer viable. “There’s no food, no blankets, no water, no bathrooms, no order, no calm,” she said. “There’s no hope.”As they waited, Jacob traded emails with officials with the U.S. Embassy. Jacob said they suggested that he “plead our case” with the border guards.But first they had to get close.
“They were pushing me into the people in front of me. I was so worried that my baby would be crushed. I was yelling at them ‘I have a baby.’ I was crying.” It eventually took the intervention of the U.S. Embassy and Congress members from the couple’s home state, Arkansas, to get Jacob out of Ukraine.