SURGEON SHARES EXPERIENCES AS MEMBER OF CANADIAN MEDICAL MISSION TO UKRAINE
Dr. Ulana Kawun with members of the medical mission
and one of their patients.
Dr. Oleh Antonyshyn and Dr. Ulana Kawun of Toronto
reviewing x-rays with fellow members of the medical
mission.
Last month, a team of 25 specialized Canadian health care professionals travelled to Ukraine to perform difficult reconstructive surgical procedures on victims of the Euromaidan revolution and the ongoing war in eastern Ukraine. The team was comprised of surgeons, anesthetists, and nurses from across Canada, including Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Toronto.
Throughout the ten-day mission the team worked alongside Ukrainian doctors and nurses to assess over 60 patients from across Ukraine with complex post-traumatic injuries and deformities. In total the mission was able to perform 37 reconstructive procedures on 30 patients. Such procedures included 7 skull reconstructions, 10 bone reconstructions of the facial skeleton, 9 soft tissue reconstructions of the eyelids, nose and lips, 5 burn and scar revisions, and 6 upper extremity reconstructions.
Toronto-based doctor Ulana Kawun was one of the surgeons who participated in the medical mission. “The cases were quite complex,” she said, “and almost every day we had a case that would last anywhere between five to seven hours.”
“This project was extraordinarily successful in terms of working with our colleagues in Ukraine,” said Kawun. “Having a place to set up, having a referral base, and on a pilot project like this you have to work out the logistics - I think that was very successfully done.”
The team was led by Dr. Oleh Antonyshyn, head of the Adult Craniofacial Program at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of Toronto. “The mission focused on post-traumatic defects and deformities, many of which were horrific. Most resulted from the explosive blast wounds and high-velocity missile wounds. The patients presented major reconstructive challenges,” said Antonyshyn.
The doctors saw it all. “We saw young boys who had had their eyes enucleated, people with bullets in their head and skull, injuries to the shoulder, arm and/or nerve so that they couldn’t move them,” recalls Kawun. “One young boy who wasn’t allowed to go protest was volunteering at a makeshift medical centre on the Maidan when a package was delivered to him. The package, which contained explosives, blew up right in front of his face, resulting in him losing an eye. Another patient had had a bullet come through his back, through his shoulder, up his mandible and through his mouth. He said he could still taste the bullet,” said Kawun.
Each patient had their own tragic story. “One boy in particular stood out for me,” recalls Kawun. “He was about 20 years old and was fighting on the front when he was injured by a big blast. The entire right side of his body – his face, his nose, his arm – was left completely dysfunctional. During their consultations each patient was asked what the most important thing was for them to have fixed by the doctors, but this patient was too shy to say anything about how he looked,” said Kawun. “I think he was a bit self-conscious about how he looked because he was so disfigured. I guess the thinking was as long as you’re alive and functional the rest is fine.”
Although he never did end up telling the medical team what he most wanted, the doctors tried to reconstruct his face as best they could. After the surgery the team found out that their patient had a four-month-old baby that he had not seen in quite some time. Despite their best efforts to convince him otherwise, the proud father would not accept any donations from them on behalf of his young daughter. “We told him it wasn’t for him, that it was just for his baby, but he kept refusing, saying that everything was under control and he would take care of it,” recounted Kawun. “Twenty years old, without a functioning arm, and with a four-month-old baby, can you imagine?”
As to the mental state of the team’s patients, “They were so grateful, oh my goodness!” says Kawun, smiling. “They were so happy, they were talking with us, they were hugging us, and all of us noticed, especially the anesthetist, that when they woke up from the surgery they were very calm, very serene, they didn’t want any pain medication even though it was available. They were just so strong, so brave. Their only question was, ‘When can we go back to help our brothers [at the front]?’”
The selflessness of the injured was apparent throughout the mission. Having gathered together some of their own money, the Canadian team donated it to one of the soldiers, who promptly replied, “Oh, this isn’t for me, I’m going to take it back to the front because they need it more there. We need to take care of our brothers.” “They weren’t thinking of themselves at all,” said Kawun.
“That was the most common mood,” she recalled. “They were very grateful, peaceful, and they wanted to keep going.”
As for the medical team, they are eager to go back to continue the project’s efforts. “We hope to return in the near future and continue to work with our Ukrainian counterparts to provide the best possible care to those injured in the current crisis,” said Dr. Antonyshyn.
The mission was organized by the Canada Ukraine Foundation and Operation Rainbow Canada under the patronage of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. Funding for the mission came from “United for Ukraine,” a gala fundraiser organized by the Canada Ukraine Foundation held in September in Toronto.
