In October 2024, the Pediatric Surgeon of the University of Utah and the plastic surgeon Shaun Mendenhall, MD, traveled west of Ukraine for a two -week medical mission, performing reconstructive surgery dishes in the children’s hands and the isats of the extremities while navigating the activities of activities.
Duration One of those threats was in the midst of reconstructive surgery. Mendenhall kept calm. “You just have to operate continuous. You can’t leave a patient at the operating room table,” he says in a statement. “Thanks to the quite distant threats and nothing that was immediately close to where we were working.”
There were three aerial alerts, which generally require going to a bomb shelter, lasting their two -week stay in Ukraine, but in general, it was a quiet moment for west of Ukraine in regard to a war. Mendenhall never thought we would enter a war for a missionary trip, but felt attracted to Ukraine. He also plans to return this July if the war situation allows.
Collaboration with the American Ukrainian surgeon
Before returning to you, if your health in July 2024, Mendenhall was at the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, where he worked closely with Oksana Jackson, MD. Jackson is a pediatric plastic surgeon specialized in facial reconstructive surgery for children. She is also an American Ukrainian.
Jackson has traveled to Ukraine many times in the last 15 years, both before and after the war began. While there are many children in Ukraine who need facial reconstruction surgery due to cleft lips and palates, there are also many reconstructive needs for hands and limbs.
“I began to listen more and more from Oksana while I was on her missionary trips to Ukraine,” says Mendenhall in a statement. “I was sending me text messages with questions about patients with hands and upper limbs that needed reconstructive surgery.”
Soon, another missionary trip was in process, one that would include Mendenhall and his experience. The mission would focus on two regional children hospitals in western Ukraine: one in a narrower city called Mukachevo and another in the largest city in Lvvv.
Mendenhall and Jackson received letters from the directors of each hospital, invited them, along with their teams, to come. The letters also described what the mission would imply and helped take the team through the mission border.
In the six months prior to the trip, Mendenhall and Jackson kept close contact with surgeons and doctors in Mukachevo and Lviv. “Every time they had a patient who came to need our experience, he sent us photos and certain information about that patient,” says Mendenhall in a statement.
Patients who were ready for treatment were added to Mendenhall’s consultation list. Some patients would need more tests before treatment, so they added to a list for future missions.
Community support allows an expanded surgical mission
While Jackson and his team had traveled to Ukraine many times before, this was the first time they had a surgeon dedicated to pediatric surgery of hands and limbs. Because of this, they needed more supplies and equipment than before.
A company donated 12 nervous stimulator devices, another lent a portable X -ray machine and another donated around $ 60000 in artificial skin to use for scars, wounds and burns.
“We have just had this large amount of support,” says Mendenhall in a statement. “I also supported me greatly, which allows me to take time away from my normal densions and call tasks while I was in Ukraine.”
Both Mendenhall and Jackson Hero’s fund collectors to help pay the trip. Mendenhall also contacted the American Surgery Society, playing the Hand Project.
“They donated $ 5,000 for travel expenses, instruments, trips and anything else we need for the mission,” says Mendenhall in a statement. The local community in the Mendenhall neighborhood also donated more than $ 12,000 to support the mission.
The preparation work culminated in a successful two -week mission. Mendenhall spent the first week at the Children’s Hospital in Zakarpattia Oblast in Mukachevo and the second week at the Saint Nicholas Children’s Hospital in Lviv. Mendenhall and his two pediatric plastic surgery partners saw some 130 patients in total and operated in 52 patients.
Training of local surgeons
Everyone worked all day and in most afternoons, trying to help as many children as possible. But patients maintain the only approach to the mission, local surgeons were also. Surgical training in Ukraine is very different from that of the United States. After the school of Medicine, future surgeons complete a residence program in a primary surgical specialty in approximately three years, and then they are often alone if they want to specialize.
“They do not have the subspecialty training we have here,” says Mendenhall in a statement. “Plastic surgery training programs do not exist in Ukraine. To become plastic surgeon in Ukraine, you must see your own training, or abroad, but this is not possible each of the war due to travel restrictions. Hand surgery.”
Local surgeons led through Ukraine to Mukachevo and Lviv to observe and sometimes help with surgeries. Mendenhall, Jackson and his teams also cool conferences and led micro -surgical training with chicken thighs. “It simply makes me very grateful for what we have, at multiple levels,” says Mendenhall in a statement.
Its objective is to return to Ukraine for a missionary trip at least once a year, if the financing and war permit.
“I was so inspired by the people of Ukraine, patients, parents and suppliers equally, and their determination, their hope of peace and willingness to learn and serve. They were super examples for me,” he says in a statement.
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