Stories from Ukraine

I traveled to Krakow, Poland to meet up with the team before arriving in
Ukraine. It was a nice reunion, as I haven’t seen many of them since last
May. This is my fifth trip to Ukraine, three of the five trips were working
at this military hospital with HTCNE & Razom. Razom translates to “together”
and is an American-Ukrainian organization who hosts us during our time in
Ukraine. We are part of their “Co-Pilot” program, making it possible for
Ukrainian doctors to learn from the West.

We worked at the Military Hospital in Lviv and the first day we screened
patients and set up the operating rooms. Almost all the patients are male
soldiers, as well as two female civilians. For the past several months the
team has met on Zoom to virtually screen patients, deciding which surgeons
will do which case, but now in person final decisions are made. We store 6
large suitcases of supplies with our host Razom and we also brought 12 more
bags of supplies with us.

It is a very busy work week and the days blend together. The hospital is a
20 minute walk to our hotel. The surgeries are all head and neck, some were
for facial paralysis (nerve damage), severe eye injuries, facial
reconstruction. On this mission, there were 2 specialists that make custom
ocular prosthetics. From the patients CT scans, they make new “eyes” even
hand painting the exact eye color for the patient. Remarkable work. This
prosthesis is helping the patients re-enter society after their devastating
injuries. Some of the surgeries were nerve transfers, soft tissue (not bone)
transfers to build up lost facial tissue, taking fascia from the thigh to
fill in the side of the face that has a large defect, and ear reconstruction
to name a few. I tried to be sure to speak to every patient as they entered
the OR (with a translator).  I introduce myself and reassure the patient
that our team will take very good care of them and it is our honor to take
care of them. They are all so thankful and appreciative that we came there
to help them. Some of the patients our team has cared for on previous
missions, so now it’s time to continue the reconstructive process, so for me
there are some familiar faces.

Aside from our busy work week, Lviv was attacked by drones on Tuesday, March
24th. The day started for us at 4am with the warning to seek shelter. I have
apps on my phone that will sound an alarm if there is a threat of drones,
missiles etc. There is a map that shows which regions are at risk. It is
very loud. The instructions are to go to the basement of the hotel where
there are no windows. We were there about an hour and a half. At 5:30am it
was time to get ready for work, eat breakfast and go to the hospital at 7am.
We started the day a bit more tired, but everyone continued to do their jobs
as usual. In the afternoon, while we were actively doing our cases, the
alarm sounded again. Sometime, around 4:30pm we were told that a drone hit a
building on St Andrew Church property in Lviv. I have visited this church on
other trips and 2 days earlier when we were walking home from the hospital.
There were 556 drones deployed across Ukraine that day and 541 were
successfully intercepted. Unfortunately, 15 drones did get through. Overall,
between March 23rd & March 24th, a total of 948 strike drones were launched.

We did 35 surgeries this week. It was very busy and exhausting for all. My
team of nurses and techs were terrific. Six of us have been on this mission
before and I had 2 new Canadian nurses on this trip. Everyone worked so well
together and each one knew how to do their job well. Each day varied with
the finishing of cases and we left the hospital between 8:30-10pm. Leaving
the last day, there are always hugs, many thanks and small gifts to the
local staff that help us all week. They are so appreciative that we come to
help their people. I joined the surgeons that were seeing the patients on
rounds. I usually never see a patient once they leave the operating room. It
is meaningful to me to see them awake, alert and many are actually smiling!
They are so very appreciative that our team came to care for them.

Written by Susan Ketigian, a HTCNE Board Member & Volunteer RN
March 2026