KYIV – In the summer of 2016, Serhiy Vovchuk suffered two bullet wounds to his left arm in the frontline town of Popasna in Luhansk Oblast from combined Russian-separatist forces.
After undergoing four operations to restore functionality of his hand and fingers, Mr. Vovchuk, of the Kyivska Rus’ 11th Motorized Infantry Battalion, had his tendons repaired by a group of Canadian surgeons on February 27 at the Defense Ministry’s Main Military Hospital.
“They treated me like their own children, this was very apparent throughout the process,” he told The Ukrainian Weekly of the Canadian physicians who helped restore functionality to his left thumb.
“After about eight weeks of exercising my left thumb, I should be able to restore at least 70 percent of my thumb’s movement,” Mr. Vovchuk said. Use of the thumb and index finger in tandem account for approximately 80 percent of hand motor movement.
Mr. Vovchuk is one of 42 patients that the 25 members of the Canadian medical team – comprising surgeons, anesthetists and nurses – are treating with their Ukrainian counterparts. The reconstructive procedures they perform are part of their fifth mission to Kyiv in the last three years that started on February 24.
Some are follow-up patients, like paratrooper Andriy Usach, who lost half his leg, and suffered severe shrapnel wounds to his left arm and jaw from Russian-made Grad rocket fire while defending the Luhansk Airport on July 17, 2014.
Canadian physicians had treated him during their first mission in November 2014, and this week they conducted reconstructive surgery on his jaw as part of a process to improve speech and chewing capability, or what is commonly called improving “quality of life.”
“There is a plate in my jaw. My hand has two plates, and I have a prosthesis on my leg,” the paratrooper said after his February 27 operation.
Given the World War II-style battle conditions that Ukrainian forces face in the Donbas, many sustain wounds from conventional warfare like shrapnel during artillery barrages in the trenches.
Since April 2014, when Moscow engineered an armed uprising in the easternmost regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, more than 10,000 people have been killed, according to data provided by the United Nations.
In February alone, 20 Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 127 wounded in Russia’s undeclared war on Ukraine. Overnight on March 1-2, one more soldier was killed and nine were wounded.
Dr. Oleh Antonyshyn, a craniofacial surgeon and professor of plastic surgery at the University of Toronto, has led each of the five medical missions.
“A major focus of this fifth medical mission will be establishing a learning partnership for years to come,” said the surgeon, whose parents hail from the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. “Our goal is to provide our Ukrainian doctors with the knowledge and tools they need to treat patients between our medical missions, as the need continues to rise.”
Canadian government, corporate and private donations from the Ukrainian diaspora community, including Wayne Gretzky, the Temerty and Ihnatowycz families, as well as Ottawa Senators hockey team owner Eugene Melnyk, have funded the five missions. Stryker Canada once again provided the group with virtually all surgical hardware and implant materials for the medical procedures.
Thus, in the previous four missions, 240 operations were performed on 127 Ukrainian activists and soldiers wounded during the Maidan revolution in 2014 and the Donbas war, according to a news release from the Canada Ukraine Foundation (CUF), under whose auspices the missions were conducted.
“The success of these missions is based on the relationships we’ve built. Now, the Defense Ministry looks for patients for us. We have total cooperation,” said Krystina Waler, director of humanitarian initiatives for UCF.
But the cross-Atlantic relationship, costing over $2 million (Canadian) to date, was jagged at first.
For example, the Defense Ministry at first told the Canadians they didn’t have patients requiring reconstructive surgery or that they had already been operated on.
“Everybody was standoffish in the beginning,” Ms. Waler said, noting that the team’s Ukrainian counterparts would only enter the break room in the surgery ward starting in the fourth mission.
Anka Wrzesnewskyj-Cottrell
Andriy Usach, a paratrooper wounded from a rocket barrage while defending the Luhansk Airport on July 17, 2014, speaks to Canadian doctors prior to follow-up surgery on his jaw in Kyiv.
But Dr. Antonyshyn’s “humble” character and lack of “ego” found common ground with his counterpart, Dr. Ihor Fedirko, the head of the main hospital’s craniofacial department, who “was always willing and interested,” she said.
Following a needs assessment, and after choosing the main military hospital, the Canadians have also conducted master classes for their medical colleagues. A Ukrainian counterpart is always present in an operating room when a Canadian surgeon, nurse or anesthetist is present.
The Ukrainians also have much to share, Ms. Waler said: “They have seen more trauma in the last three years than our doctors would see in a lifetime.”
And to not drain the hospital’s already depleted resources, the Canadians always bring their own instruments, equipment and disposables. Whatever is not used gets donated to the hospital.
“Our goal is to make them self-sufficient after all of this,” said Ms. Waler, who is also the project’s manager. “We always do cranial-facial reconstructive surgeries and the upper arm. We try and choose surgeries that have minimal complication risk. The last thing you want to do is come into a foreign country and leave them with a bunch of complications. We do surgeries that will have a high impact…”
And if the group treats a patient outside the Defense Ministry’s purview, they pay for the room, bed and other related expenses, she added.
Wishing to build on the Canadians’ success is the U.S. Army.
A group of six American medical officers from two bases in Germany came as observers: Capt. Andrey Sidorenko, physician assistant; Col. Sheri DeMartelare, oculoplastic surgeon; Maj. Justin Miller, nurse; Maj. Kyong Winkler, nurse; Lt. Col. Arthur Yeater, occupational therapist; and Maj. Johnny Paul, physician’s assistant.
“We want to collaborate with the Canadians and Ukrainians and discover their lessons learned,” said Lt. Col. Yeager while customizing a fabricated hand device for Oleksandr Popovych on his wounded right hand to help him use a knife so that he could work as a cook in civilian life. “Logistically, the Canadians now have a smooth operation, they’ve built trust with their Ukrainian colleagues.”
The Americans want to focus on post-operative occupation and physical therapy, the American officer added, both of which are in their infant development stages in Ukraine.