Through the “Face to Face” program, which provides free facial reconstructive surgeries for war victims, a new opportunity was presented for severely injured Ukrainian soldiers defending their homeland from Russia’s invasion.
Main Purpose of the Trip: Training Ukrainian Doctors
Dr. Manoj Abraham, one of the surgeons, stated that the main purpose of the trip was to train Ukrainian doctors on these complex procedures. This is the team’s third visit since the war began on February 24, 2022.
Face to Face Program
The doctors belong to the “Face to Face” program, which provides free cosmetic surgeries for children with facial deformities due to birth or trauma, and for adults who are survivors of domestic violence in the United States. The program also assists war victims in distant countries.
The Story of Vyacheslav Kondrashov
Vyacheslav Kondrashov, a 40-year-old soldier, was serving on the front lines on the day Russian forces invaded. He said, “So we were right in combat.” He insisted that his wife and 10-year-old daughter must leave for Germany, and he hasn’t seen them since. He has no memory of the tank that exploded his vehicle, causing him horrific injuries and leaving him with only one eye.
Kondrashov said, “American surgeons cut the tendons in my face to make it look more symmetrical and took nerves from my legs and placed them in my face. It’s unbelievable. They left shrapnel in my left eye because removing it might harm my brain. I have a prosthetic eye that I can put in and take out!”
He was dismissed from military service “because I’m not good for them now,” and he hopes to be able to see his family, whom he calls every day. “My daughter really wants to come home. I tell her: No, no, go to school. Stay there, it’s not safe. And at the same time the alarms go off because rockets are flying over our heads. I miss them so much!”
He added, “I want to thank the doctors. We have many injured here, and our doctors cannot stop the bleeding.”
The Story of Dr. Augustin Moscatiello
Dr. Augustin Moscatiello, a clinical professor of otolaryngology at a medical school in New York, has been making humanitarian trips at his own expense for three decades. They bought their own plane tickets and brought along 15 bags of medical equipment – most of it donations – including surgical tools, antibiotics, and anesthetics.
Moscatiello, 70, said about his Ukrainian patients: “We are taking care of cancer patients to reconstruct defects – but instead of cancer, they have a bullet piercing their face. These are horrific injuries. Their eyes are destroyed, their noses blown off, and their jaws shattered. Part of our motivation is to make them realize that they have support from the outside.”
The idea that these injuries are inflicted intentionally is something he thinks about all the time. “It’s one thing when a hurricane comes and wreaks havoc, but this is calculated, logical, and preventable. It is not logical at all,” he says. “We should be in a more enlightened age. These injuries are very similar to those we see in trench warfare from World War I.”
The Story of Pavlo Melnychenko
Pavlo Melnychenko, a 23-year-old, was working as a paramedic in an intensive care unit near the Belarusian border when war broke out. He enlisted on the same day.
He said, “I was working in the artillery unit, and on July 29 we were preparing for an exploratory mission in armored vehicles when we were hit by a tank shell.” They crawled out of their vehicle and went to a nearby trench, but Russian soldiers advanced on them. In a close-range gunfire, a bullet penetrated the lower half of his face.
He said, “I was lucky it was a bullet and not shrapnel. We were lying in that trench with bullets flying over our heads. It was really scary, like an American movie. I don’t know how long we were there, but our artillery arrived… when they got to me with a stretcher, they gave me water and I just fell from the gap that was under my face.”
This
The surgery was the fifth reconstructive operation for Milnichenko, and his vision remains at 20% due to a brain hemorrhage. He sees a psychiatrist and takes antidepressants, but he has to be kept at night when he wakes up screaming from nightmares.
His mother Tamara said sadly, “He used to be happy and social. Now he is a different person. The scars of war – whether emotional or physical – will stay with them for their entire lives.”
The Story of Dr. Manoj Abraham
Dr. Manoj Abraham, a renowned plastic surgeon in New York, is the head of the “Face to Face” program, the humanitarian arm of the American Academy of Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery. He is one of the few doctors who traveled to Ukraine for the latest mission of the program.
Abraham, 53, said, “I didn’t tell my mom I was going this last time. She was very nervous and didn’t want me to go.” He told her he had just returned from Ukraine when he saw her on Thanksgiving.
Abraham admitted that the medical team was initially afraid of being targeted by the Russians. The State Department warned them not to travel – “but when we said we would go anyway, they arranged a green zone for us to enter under a diplomatic permit.”
He said, “It’s absolutely astonishing to see these patients. We deal with facial reconstruction after surgical procedures or trauma from car accidents, but these are war wounds and many of them are missing limbs as well. These are completely devastating matters,” he said.
The main goal of the mission, in his opinion, is to teach local doctors to “start and operate – and we may need to do something similar to help people in Palestine. Although my mom might criticize me.”
The Story of Vasyl Pavliuk
Vasyl Pavliuk, 28, was working as a doctor in his hometown of Kolomyia and enlisted the day after the war broke out, where he became the head of the medical unit in the first rifle battalion in Solidar. He said, “It was chaos. No one knew what to do.”
Regarding the day when his lower face was torn apart by shrapnel from an exploding tank shell, Pavliuk said, “We were advancing under crossfire when four friends jumped on a mine and had their lower limbs blown off. We loaded them onto an ambulance and I returned to retrieve another wounded man lying in the field. I looked around and saw a tank coming toward me. I didn’t hear the explosion until it hit me.”
He was rescued by soldiers and underwent life-saving surgery at the local field hospital. After four more surgeries, he was informed about the “Face to Face” program through friends. He said, “After I was accepted, they asked me if I looked in the mirror, what I would like to change. I said I would like my nose and mouth to be in the right place.”
His girlfriend Julia (who appeared in a picture on vacation in the Carpathians before the war), said that when she entered the hospital and saw him shortly after his injury: “He was still Vasyl to me, just changed a little.”
While Ukrainian surgeons saved his life, American surgeons restored his quality of life. “I feel much better about my appearance now. I’m amazed by these doctors.”
The Story of Dr. Ivanka Nipor
Dr. Ivanka Nipor, born in Ukraine and now living in the United States, is the founder of a medical NGO called “Ingenious” based in Ukraine. She said, “I was really impressed when the ‘Face to Face’ team arrived and said they were ready to come here and perform surgeries.” She added that there is strong support for the mission in Ukraine.
She participates in surgery while chatting with patients and finds every story uniquely heartbreaking. She said, “The war will leave scars on souls and faces. Most of them will return to battle… we will not give up.”
The Story of
Sergei Hontchar
Sergei Hontchar, who is 32 years old, said: “On February 24, 2022, my mother woke me up and said, ‘Son, we are at war.’ I joined a combat unit and in June we were sent to Bakhmut.” He recalled the events that followed, saying: “It was really chaotic there. We were under constant fire day and night, and on the fifth day, I was injured in the face by shrapnel from a tank shell. I don’t want to talk about it.”
Hontchar lay in the square for 24 hours conscious – with what one of the doctors later described as a “hole in the middle of his face” – until volunteers noticed him moving and took him to the hospital. His last surgery in Lviv was one of 10 operations he underwent over the past six months.
He said: “I completely surrendered myself into their hands. I trust them.” He hopes for another procedure by the “Face to Face” team to replace the cartilage in his nose and remove the breathing tubes on their next trip. Until then, “my wife Iryna is always by my side.”
The Story of Dr. Scott Tatum
Dr. Scott Tatum, who is 63 years old, is the head of the “Face to Face” program. He said: “I chased down to a small town on the Ukrainian border and took a bus to Lviv.” He spoke about his recent trip to the municipal emergency hospital: “Certainly, we had some safety concerns, but it was a calculated risk.”
He said: “It reminded me of a time when I was a resident again. We were working 12 to 16 hours a day and getting five to six hours of sleep at night,” Tatum, who was photographed resting between surgeries, said. “That was a bit tough.” Each time he finishes a task, local doctors contact him via WhatsApp during their rounds to keep him updated on the patients’ recovery.
Tatum said that Ukrainians are “some of the bravest and most resilient people” he has met, adding that during his recent trip, they taught him about “the horrors of war and the power of love.”
The Story of Emilian Toft
Emilian Toft, who is 41 years old, was working as a businessman in the Transcarpathia region when Russia invaded. He was told he had to join. He said: “I had no military experience, and everything was very fast.”
Toft was traveling in a military truck as part of a convoy advancing toward Kherson when they were attacked by an anti-tank missile. He said: “As I lay in a hole, I could hear the weapons approaching, so I ripped off my heavy protective vest and crawled away. But a tank shell exploded near me, and I was injured in the limbs, head, neck, and abdomen. I thought I had cut an artery because there was blood everywhere, and in that moment, I said goodbye to my loved ones.”
He lay there for hours with rockets flying overhead, trying not to lose consciousness, until the firing finally stopped, and he could be rescued. Later, he learned that eight of the 12 people who were in the truck with him were killed instantly. He said: “We were so close during the war. Two of them were my childhood friends.”
His wife Pavliuk applied to participate in the “Face to Face” program on his behalf, and they were happy when he was accepted. He said: “They will make me look better and will put my nose and mouth back in place so I can breathe. I trust them.”
Morning Rounds
Dr. Abraham walks with fellow doctors on morning rounds to check on the patients’ condition after surgery.
The ten American surgeons who traveled with “Face to Face” spent five intensive days performing surgeries on 32 patients. There were eight major surgeries where tissue was taken from another part of the body and implanted in the injured area of the face.
He said
Dr. Tatum: “It was truly a source of pride to have the training and resources to share with those who need it.” Dr. Frodell added, “Ukrainians have a wonderful sense of humor, and it can be a little shocking, but it’s very much like the show M*A*S*H. We have a lot of fun. It’s very sad otherwise.”
Surgeons often do not have enough time to get to know the patients or understand how they sustained their injuries, but Frodell was impressed to learn that many of them want to return directly to the front lines “with one arm and one eye.” He was touched when he gave three different soldiers strips from their uniforms: “It’s really meaningful and a big deal for them.”
While performing surgery on a blind soldier during the mission, a Ukrainian doctor who was speaking to the patient left the room in tears. She later told him, “He thought he would be able to see again because of you.” She said to him, “We don’t work miracles.”
The Story of Andrii Karavalanov
Andrii Karavalanov met his wife Anna 13 years ago, not expecting to be called one day to defend his country against a Russian invasion. He is still unable to speak clearly, but Anna is happy to speak on his behalf.
Anna said, “I was so proud of him when he and his friends went to join. I registered as a volunteer too.” She added that their 11-year-old son Makari missed him “and cried a lot.”
Karavalanov had been sent to fight in a combat unit, and Anna lived for his calls.
Source: https://www.aol.com/u-plastic-surgeons-reconstructed-faces-202125305.html
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