Eng
Esp

Copyright © 2021 Euromaidanpress.com

The work of Euromaidan Press is supported by the International Renaissance Foundation

When referencing our materials, please include an active hyperlink to the Euromaidan Press material and a maximum 500-character extract of the story. To reprint anything longer, written permission must be acquired from [email protected].

Privacy and Cookie Policies.

Fifth mission of Canadian surgeons will provide free surgeries to Ukrainian soldiers

byEuromaidan Press Staff
01/03/2017
3 minute read
The medical mission’s first day of operations. Photo: Anka WC
Fifth mission of Canadian surgeons will provide free surgeries to Ukrainian soldiers

The fifth Canadian medical mission began its work in Kyiv on 24 February 2016. It’s the largest since the initiative launched in 2014, involving 26 surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses and a physical therapist, as well as 6 members of the US Army Medical Service Corps, who joined the Canadian mission for the first time. They all came on a volunteer basis to work together with Ukrainian doctors to help operate, treat, and diagnose soldiers. The US military professionals are observing how the Canadian mission works in order to do orthopaedic master classes in Ukraine in the future.

This mission, like the four before it, are sponsored by the Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) and is headed by the Canadian doctor Oleh Antonyshyn, Head of the Adult Craniofacial Program at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Professor of Plastic Surgery, University of Toronto. The team is assembled from across Canada and will treat facial and upper extremity trauma, post-traumatic craniofacial deformities, soft tissue defects, and scars. Over the four previous missions, the medical staff performed 240 operations on 127 Ukrainian activists and soldiers wounded during the Maidan revolution in 2014 and the subsequent war in Eastern Ukraine.

Photo: fb.com/cufoundation
Photo: fb.com/cufoundation

Each mission lasts for about a week, during which the Canadians try to help as many patients as possible, who have little opportunity to be treated in Ukraine. The Canadians mainly accept the most difficult cases that require cranial and facial operations, as well as hand therapy. The patients are invited for checkups when the mission comes back. This time, the plans are to operate some 40 patients.

However, it’s unlikely that these large-scale missions can continue for a long time. Speaking to newpathway.ca, CUF president Victor Hetmanczuk told that they will need to reevaluate their strategy and scale the mission down. “We would like to send teams of 5-6 people to hospitals in Lviv, Odesa, Kharkiv, and Dnipro to share our expertise. The Americans are having a videographer on their team who will prepare teaching videos for the Ukrainian side and for the American side,” he told.

Victor Hetmanczuk, President of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation, informed that the Foundation will soon launch an advanced training program for nurses in Ukraine, “Advanced practical guidance for clinical work,” that was born as Ukrainian nurses observed the practices of Canadian nurses during the missions. In Ontario, there are 46 best practices that are being used to improve nurses skills after they got their degree. Speaking at a press conference in UCMC, Victor told that such training courses are held in many countries, including Italy, Belgium, and Australia with a total duration of 3 years. “The program is aimed at developing medical care standards, practical use of evidence, sharing knowledge in nursing, facilitating the clinical decision making, filling knowledge gaps and reducing the financial expenditures of hospitals,” he noted. Victor hopes that Canadian standards on PTSD will be introduced into the nursing curriculum in Ukraine, which would work towards institutional change in the Ukrainian hospital system.

As part of the 3rd and 4th missions that were partially funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Canada the equipment and medical supplies worth about 700 thousand dollars were delivered to Ukraine. All this equipment was left in the Main Military Clinical Hospital clinics.

The Canada-Ukraine Foundation is run by private donations. You can contribute here. Among the Foundation’s other projects is one to help Mykola, a 12-year old triple-amputee boy who was injured during the conflict in eastern Ukraine. After a year of rehabilitation in Canada, Mykola went home firmly standing on his own prostheses.

Read about the previous medical missions to Ukraine here:

You could close this page. Or you could join our community and help us produce more materials like this.  We keep our reporting open and accessible to everyone because we believe in the power of free information. This is why our small, cost-effective team depends on the support of readers like you to bring deliver timely news, quality analysis, and on-the-ground reports about Russia's war against Ukraine and Ukraine's struggle to build a democratic society. A little bit goes a long way: for as little as the cost of one cup of coffee a month, you can help build bridges between Ukraine and the rest of the world, plus become a co-creator and vote for topics we should cover next. Become a patron or see other ways to support. Become a Patron!

To suggest a correction or clarification, write to us here

You can also highlight the text and press Ctrl + Enter

Please leave your suggestions or corrections here


    Related Posts

    March 6: Moscow will not support the mission of peacekeeping forces to Ukraine

    March 7 – 1541 Ukrainian military have died during the anti-terrorist operation in eastern Ukraine, – said Yuriy Segeyev,Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations.

    March 7 – 500 bodies of local residents were found in the basements of apartment buildings in Debaltseve. These people were killed by Russian artillery, used to invade the city. At that point all escape routes were blocked by the Russians, – stated United States Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power.

    March 7 – Last night powerful signals intelligence systems were installed along the border with Kharkiv oblast (on the Russian side), said the Ukrainian MP and member of parliamentary committee on National Security and Defence Andriy Levus.

    March 7 – The US has suspended its project on providing training to Ukrainian military. The administration in Washington would like to first observe how the parties to the conflict in eastern Ukraine will respect the ceasefire. Under the proposed project, a battalion of American soldiers could train three battalions of Ukrainian military.

    March 7 – Chairman of the Committee on International Affairs of Russian State Duma Alexei Pushkov believes that if the key to peace in Donbas could be in the EU influencing the US to refrain from providing Ukraine with weapons. Whereas Russia, of course, will continue to regularly provide weapons to its troops and pro-Russian militants in Donbas. THEN the peace will come. Peace Russian-style.

    March 7 – Sooner or later the sanctions against Russia will continue, but at present this issue is not on the agenda, – said Foreign Minister of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius.

    March 7 – Another "humanitarian aid convoy" broke into Ukraine – on personal instructions from Putin. More weapons and soldiers were delivered.

    March 7 – Construction of new NATO bases in Europe is not being considered at the moment, – said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Lubomír Zaorálek. Instead, the Baltic States and Poland are insisting to increase the number of NATO exercises due to the escalation of the situation around Ukraine. The US has initiated Atlantic Resolve program, aimed at consolidating its military presence in Europe. According to Internet media DefenceNews, official Washington is considering systematic use of military ranges in Czech Republic, Hungary and Georgia for the abovementioned exercises.

    March 6 – Russia thretened USA that it would begin an attack on Kyiv in case there is a supply of arms to Ukraine. This was stated by the people's deputy, a member of the Collegium of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Anton Herashchenko, on the air of the program Shuster Live, reported RBK-Ukraina. "I was in Washington, and met with certain groups of analysts, and posed to them one question: "Why is President Obama so insistently refusing to undertake the decision, already ratified by Congress, on provioding weapons to Ukraine. I was told that Putin warned President Obama and his advisers that if the United States provides arms to Ukraine, then Putin will dare to attack Kyiv from all fronts," stated Herashchenko. Let us remember that on the day before, 8 Congress members appealed to Obama to hurry in providing Ukraine with weapons. In its turn, Russia urged Ukraine and the United Staets to "consider the consequences" of army collaboration. On March 4th, the State Department stated that Obama had until now still not made a decision about providing Ukraine with weapons.

    March 6 – No Ukrainian military were killed and 4 were injured in the last 24 hours in the ATO area, informed NSDC spokesman Andriy Lysenko.

    March 6 – Pro-Russian militants are withdrawing insignificant numbers of artillery weapons from the boundary line in Donbas, however are accumulating forces in the "near front-line" areas, informed the organiser of "Information resistance" group Dmytro Tymchuk.

    March 6 – A group of American congressmen representing both Democratic and Republican parties have once again urged the US President Barack Obama to provide Ukraine with lethal defensive weapons. But Obama is still "contemplating"...

    March 6 – Russian gold reserves continue to decrease. The volume of international (gold) reserves of Russia on March 1stamounted to 360.2 billion USD. In February it was at 376.2 billion USD (minimum value since the beginning of 2007). Russia's reserves decreased by 16 billion USD in one month. War is expensive.

    March 6 – Official exchange rate of UAH to USD is now less than 23 UAH per 1 USD. On Friday, March 6th, National Bank of Ukraine has established the exchange rate of 22,8970 UAH per 1 USD.

    March 6 – Another explosion has happened in Kharkiv – this time a minibus belonging to volunteer battalion commander of "Slobozhanshchyna" Battalion Andriy Yangolenko was blown up. A Russian mine was planted in the car.

    March 6 – Donetsk separatist Andrey Purgin, a self-professed speaker of "Donetsk People's Republic" has requested that the Speaker of Ukrainian Parliament Volodymyr Groysman meets with "DPR" delegation to discuss amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine. As it has been reported, 11th provision of implementation plan of Minsk agreements implies "decentralization (while taking into account certain characteristics of identified rayons of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, which have been agreed upon with the representatives of these rayons), as well as adopting a law on special status of the identified rayons of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts."

    March 6 – The value of assets of the Armed-Sea Forces of Ukraine (ASFU) captured by Russia in Crimea is estimated at a minimum of 1 billion 495 million Ukrainian hryvni. Until the moment when in June 2014, Russia unilaterally ceased all negotiations about the return of weapons, supplies, and wealth of the ASFU, Russia succeeded in removing from Crimea:

    Combat ships – 3 units;

    Security vessels – 32 units;

    Automobiles, armored tanks,and specialized tanks – 1,438 units;

    Flying apparatus (airplanes and helicopters) – 24 units.

    Left in Crimea were:

    Combat ships and patrol boats – 11 units;

    Ships and security patrol boats – 6 units;

    Automobiles, armored tanks,and specialized tanks – 2,363 units;

    Flying apparatus – 3 units;

    Coastal anti-ship complexes – 6 units.

    March 5 – 1 Ukrainian military was killed and 1 wounded in Donbas in the last 24 hours, – informed acting spokesman of the General Staff of Ukrainian Armed Forces Vladyslav Seleznyov.

    March 5 – In Crimea, Russian authorities are questioning the participants of the II All-Crimean Conference of the Committee on protecting the rights of Crimean Tatar people, – informed on his Facebook page Committee Chairman and Majlis member, Eskender Bariev.

    March 5 – "Authorities" of the occupied Crimea have refused to investigate the murder of Crimean Tatar Mr.Ametov. They have killed Crimean Tatars in the past and will continue killing them in the future.

    March 5 – Nadiya Savchenko, who was on hunger strike for 83 days, has agreed to stop. "I am learning to change my tactics. Yes, physically I feel lousy, but not bad enough to have to die right now. So for some time I will be drinking broth – if I have to live, I will fly, if I have to die, I will die healthy", – she wrote.

    March 5 – Moscow will not support the mission of peacekeeping forces to Ukraine, if such a proposal is submitted to UN Security Council, – said Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov

    March 5 – The number of cases of unjustified detention of citizens of Ukraine has increased in Russia, – statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine

    March 5 – "Large numbers" of Russian soldiers are dying in eastern Ukraine, where for almost a year pro-Russian separatists have been fighting against the Ukrainian government, – stated NATO Deputy Secretary General of NATO Alexander Vershbow, reports Agence France Presse.

    March 5 – In Luhansk oblast Ukrainian Armed Forces have withdrawn its rocket and artillery batteries according to Minsk agreements (including multiple rocket launcher systems BM-21 "Grad").

    March 5 – RF President Volodymyr Putin wants to destroy NATO. This was stated by the Commander of U.S. Ground Forces in Europe, General-Lieutenant Ben Hodges, reports The Telegraph. "I am convinced that Putin wants to detroy our alliance, not by attacking it but by splitting it up," he noted. Hodges also commented that Russia may attempt to to destabilize one of the members of NATO by the use of partisans or other forms of 'hybrid war'. He also urged that American tanks be placed in countries along the eastern wing of NATO, in terms of stopping that factor for Putin. Specifically, according to Hodges, he proposed to place tanks in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Rumania, and Bulgaria.

    There will be no peace while Putin is squatting in Ukraine's living room

    Andriy Kurkov's insights on Maidan (Edmonton, Canada)

    Ukr women on the frontline

    Why Russia will lose Ukraine

    La Fondation Robert Schuman – Russia, Ukraine and International Law

    P.S.: Please spread this appeal as much as possible.

    byTaras Voznyak