Ukrainian toddler now in the U.S. undergoes second surgical procedure (04/11/04)

Ukrainian toddler now in the U.S. undergoes second surgical procedure

by Andrew Nynka

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - Far removed from their home in Ukraine, Vera Tkachuk and her 20-month-old daughter Mariyka have spent the past several weeks living in the United States hoping that a Ukrainian American doctor can help little Mariyka recover from a bacterial infection that once threatened her life and left her physically scarred.

The goal of a second surgical procedure for Mariyka - to allow her to regain use of her paralyzed vocal cords and remove the artificial airway that was placed in her throat over a year ago after she contracted a rare bacterial infection in her native Kyiv - was postponed during a surgical procedure on March 30 after a Ukrainian American doctor found yet another complication with the child.

While at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in New York City, Dr. Oleh Slupchynskyj, the Ukrainian American doctor who performed what became a two-hour diagnostic operation for free, discovered that Mariyka's windpipe narrowed and would first need to be corrected by enlarging that passageway before any other surgical procedures could take place.

In February 2003 The Ukrainian Weekly reported that a mysterious virus slowly consumed the cartilage in young Mariyka's nose, forcing doctors to surgically insert a breathing tube in the infant's throat in order for her to breath. The toddler has spent much of her life breathing through a tube in her throat that allows air to reach her lungs, but that tube must be cleaned and maintained daily.

The virus, which physically scarred Mariyka and left her with a closed nasal passage and a badly disfigured nose, also took the lives of four other infants in the pediatric ward of Kyiv's Children's Hospital No. 2 a year ago and left a fifth child with permanent brain damage.

While doctors in Ukraine, who originally inserted the artificial breathing tube, helped Mariyka survive the bacterial infection, there was little they could do to open an airway in the child's nose, much less perform any reconstructive surgery to repair Mariyka's nose.

In the first of what he estimates will be a series of surgical procedures to help Mariyka, Dr. Slupchynskyj traveled to Ukraine last year to reopen a nasal passageway by inserting a metal stent in the child's nose. The second surgery at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary on March 30 of this year was to have removed Mariyka's artificial airway and, Dr. Slupchynskyj said, would have allowed her to begin speaking again.

Dr. Slupchynskyj said the procedure was to have included two sections, a diagnostic portion to evaluate the child's condition, and a surgical procedure to remove the artificial airway and repair the child's vocal cords. It was during the diagnostic procedure that the Ukrainian American doctor first learned that Mariyka's narrow windpipe would need to be made wider.

Dr. Slupchynskyj estimated that the next surgery will cost $15,000, but he said that doctors might encounter further unforeseen difficulties that could drive the cost of the procedure as high as $50,000.

While in the United States, Mariyka and her mother Vera, 24, have been staying with the Burachinsky family in Florham Park, N.J., while the child's father, Serhiy, has remained in Ukraine because of the financial constraints of traveling to the United States.

The Tkachuks will stay with the Burachinsky family in New Jersey until the surgery to remove the artificial airway takes place. Dr. Slupchynskyj told The Weekly in a telephone interview that the third surgery for Mariyka would not take place until at least May 14. The doctor and the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund, who have worked together to find funding to pay for Mariyka's medical and travel expenses, said that a procedure prior to mid-May was not possible because of the preparation still needed for such a surgery.

Dr. Slupchynskyj said there could be "a hundred reasons why she could have vocal paralysis," but the doctor explained that it did not occur as a result of anything that doctors in Ukrainian originally did for Mariyka. "Everything they did in Ukraine [for Mariyka] was right," Dr. Slupchynskyj said.

Dr. Slupchynskyj and his Aesthetic Institute of New York, which has a history of facial reconstruction work, appear committed to helping Mariyka further as she must still undergo other surgical procedures to remove the artificial breathing channel in her throat. Additionally, Dr. Slupchynskyj said, the ultimate goal is also to reconstruct Mariyka's nose so that she can lead a normal life.

The Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund, a New Jersey-based humanitarian aid organization, has set up a fund for the child called The Mariyka Fund. For more information or to donate to the fund contact CCRF, 272 Old Short Hills Road, Short Hills, NJ 07080; phone, (973) 376-5140; fax, (973) 376-4988; e-mail, [email protected].

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