What this surgeon from Ukraine is learning in Hamilton about treating victims of war

A surgeon from Ukraine, who normally works at a public trauma hospital, has come to Hamilton to learn more about techniques that could save lives among victims of the brutal Russian invasion.

Dr. Mariia Kuzeikiv came to Canada in October as part of Hamilton Health Sciences’ ASSIST program, which brought seven doctors from Ukraine to receive training to treat serious war injuries.

The program was started in 2022 by Dr. Mark Pahuta, an orthopedic spine surgeon and associate professor at McMaster University in Hamilton.

Pahuta is of Ukrainian descent and has family and friends in Ukraine, he said.

“I wanted to be able to contribute in some positive way to help the terrible situation that is happening there now and apply my skills and training to help Ukrainians,” Pahuta said.

In February 2022, Russia began a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. According to totals from the United Nations human rights office released this month, 14,534 civilians, including 745 children, have been killed since the war began. Recently, US President Donald Trump and his government have been working on a plan to end the war, and Canada and other world leaders said it “needs more work.”

But every day more Ukrainians are affected. As recently as November 19, at least 26 people were killed and nearly 100 were injured in a Russian drone and missile attack that hit apartment buildings in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil, according to Ukraine’s Interior Minister.

“Surgeons are a very important human resource in Ukraine right now, and sending someone here puts a burden on a hospital,” Pahuta said.

“The most important thing is to make this a valuable experience so that they learn some transferable skills that they can really come back to Ukraine and make an impact.”

Kuzeikiv will be in Canada for six months until April.

Work in Ukraine involves wounded soldiers

In Ukraine, Kuzeikiv works in a public trauma hospital, where he treats civilians and military personnel who were injured in the conflict.

“My main job right now at the hospital where I am is providing care to patients with gunshot and blast trauma, primarily blast trauma,” he said, referring to blast injuries.

Kuzeikiv said he sees “large wounds” where bone tissue has been lost or that leave large defects in the skin. Some need several surgeries to recover.

“My main goal is to help [patients regain their] primary movements,” he said.

Once back in Ukraine, Kuzeikiv hopes to use what he learned in Hamilton to help the wounded in Lviv.

“I truly believe that I will improve my skills and implement everything that is asked of me. [teaching] here because it is very necessary at this time,” he said.

two-way learning

On Nov. 14, Pahuta and Kuzeikiv, along with another surgeon, performed special surgery on the lower back of a patient with an unstable pelvic fracture, a first for Kuzeikiv. He said he was scared in the operating room, but he also had “a lot of expectations.”

“Sometimes I didn’t know what I should do,” Kuzeikiv said. “Sometimes [colleagues] supported me during this surgery because sometimes I didn’t know how to use [the tools].”

During surgery, doctors inserted several screws into the patient’s lower back to connect her spine and pelvis, which Pahuta hopes will help reduce her pain.

The surgeons also used something called navigation to allow them to perform the surgery in a minimally invasive way, which Kuzeikiv also learned about that day.

She said learning these techniques in Canada will help her when caring for patients in Lviv, a western Ukrainian city that is “more peaceful,” Kuzeikiv said, but is also subject to Russian attacks.

keep busy

Dr. Paul Klas, a hip and knee replacement and trauma surgeon at Hamilton Health Sciences, said Hamilton is a good place for Kuzeikiv to learn.

“Hamilton Health Sciences, depending on which metric you use, is probably the second busiest trauma center in Ontario and the third busiest in Canada,” Hamilton told CBC.

“So we get a high volume of blunt orthopedic trauma.”

Klas said he hopes to continue working with Kuzeikiv.

“It has been very fun to have fellows from Ukraine come to share their experiences and be able to work together caring for complex multiple trauma patients,” he said.

Pahuta said the Ukrainian scholars are not the only ones learning.

“Unfortunately, a lot of innovation occurs in times of war and we constantly hear in the news about innovative new uses of drones and other technologies in war,” he said.

“The same thing happens in medicine and surgery. So this is an opportunity for us to build bridges and connections with Ukrainian surgeons and learn from them.”