Mission possible: Edmonton ICU surgeon performing life-changing surgeries to Ukraine war victims

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As an intensive care unit physician on the College of Alberta Hospital, Dr. Oleksa Rewa has seen his justifiable share of individuals struggling horrific accidents. It comes with the territory.

However in March 2022, he acquired a chance to go to Czeladz, Poland on a mission with the Canada-Ukraine Basis, and the trauma he witnessed will little question stick with him not only for the remainder of his profession, however his life.

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“These had been males aged wherever from 18 to their 40s, which remains to be very younger, having horrible disfiguring accidents. They’re mainly the worst kind of accidents you’ll be able to survive from,” mentioned Rewa.

“Folks had been coming in a lot sicker than we thought and with wounds we didn’t even know existed.“

Rewa is a part of the Canada Ukraine Surgical Assist Program (CUSAP), which is a program underneath the CUF, the place a crew of medical doctors and nurses throughout Canada, journey to Poland for a number of weeks and carry out intensive and sophisticated surgical procedures on Ukrainian navy and civilians who’ve been devastatingly injured from the Russia-Ukraine struggle.

Their first mission was in 2014, and because the struggle between Ukraine and Russia broke in 2022 they’ve run ongoing medical support applications each two months. It’s anticipated that there are already roughly 20,000 amputees because of struggle accidents.

The struggle victims endured life-saving surgical procedures leaving them with life-altering accidents, and the medical crew carry out beauty and reconstructive surgical procedures.

Rewa makes a speciality of head and neck surgical procedures.

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“It could be 16- to 18-hour days. You didn’t have time to actually consider what was occurring round you. You probably did what needed to be executed,” mentioned Rewa.

“Each day was a shock, and also you needed to be very agile and have the ability to pivot and take care of what was occurring. There have been just a few instances the place it felt like we weren’t going to get issues executed, however with the efforts of our crew, we acquired by means of it.”

Rewa carried out surgical procedures each day on sufferers, typically a number of surgical procedures on a affected person. Professionally, Rewa was examined to the very best diploma, performing some surgical procedures he’s by no means needed to encounter.

As a surgeon, certainly there are occasions when performing surgical procedure can typically grow to be routine, however this mission supplied a lot extra for Rewa.

“I bear in mind one soldier significantly. I imagine a mine had blown up in his face. His decrease jaw was fully gone. He had a life-saving process carried out in Ukraine, after which a titanium reconstruction of his jaw,” mentioned Rewa.

“As a result of it was a unclean wound, it acquired contaminated and ate away on the bone and tissue graphs that had been there.”

He remembers assembly him for the primary time earlier than surgical procedure.

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“It’s one thing you’ll be able to’t put together your self for,” mentioned Rewa.

“He was within the room along with his sister, and he took off his masks and mainly what you see is the place now we have chins, he has a metallic plate, the sort you’d see on the backside of a helmet. After that it’s open and also you see the bottom of his tongue.

“To maintain the saliva from happening his shirt, as a result of he had nothing to shut his mouth, he would shove rags in there to shut up the area.”

Since then, Rewa says the affected person has needed to have no less than two extra surgical procedures to get his jaw reconstructed, bone and pores and skin put again in and his lips rebuilt.

“Now he can eat soup. He took a video of himself consuming soup and despatched it to our group, as a result of that was one thing he by no means thought he’d have the ability to do once more,” mentioned Rewa.

One other affected person that sticks with Dr. Rewa was an aged civilian who was injured in a rocket strike. The person got here to them with what was initially regarded as a scalp wound, however it turned a lot extra.

“What we discovered after we took off the varied bandages was a cranium an infection, with a really invasive and drug-resistant micro organism, after which he informed us he couldn’t transfer his proper arm,” mentioned Rewa.

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“We took off his shirt and located that his proper scapula (shoulder blade) was fully uncovered and he had damaged bones in his proper arm that weren’t recognized to us.“

As somebody of Ukrainian heritage, this expertise has actually hit dwelling for Dr. Rewa. He admits that he’s not somebody who sometimes will get too emotional in his work, however this expertise introduced it out in him.

“What I discovered, on my flight again, I ended up having a five-hour layover in Frankfurt, and that’s when issues actually hit me. I acquired actually emotional. It introduced one thing out in me,” mentioned Rewa.

“We helped lots of people. It was rewarding for me, and it helped overcome the burnout I used to be experiencing from the COVID pandemic. As an intensive care physician, all through the pandemic.

“Professionally I used to be beginning to burn out and to have one thing totally different like this to offer work that was rewarding and folks appreciated, helped me get by means of that burnout I used to be experiencing, and finally it’s helped me look after sufferers right here in Edmonton once more.”

Rewa has been on two missions with CUF thus far and is scheduled to go on his third mission in April. That is one thing that isn’t simply humanitarian work for Rewa, it’s private. It’s grow to be an enormous ardour for him.

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“It actually has grow to be a part of who I’m. The way in which I take a look at it, it’s 4 or 5 weeks out of the yr. That’s about 10 per cent of my time, and that’s a drop within the bucket by way of time dedication for the way a lot worth it supplies these individuals and all the Ukraine struggle effort,” mentioned Rewa.

“That is one thing I’ll be doing for the foreseeable future, and I don’t see it slowing down for the subsequent seven to 10 years. Hopefully, when issues get extra settled and steady, we are able to transfer these missions again to the Ukraine.”

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