Ukrainian-Canadians eager to volunteer on medical front lines amid Russian invasion
Global News
With the violence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine escalating, sitting on the sidelines watching the atrocities is a challenge for medical professionals in Canada hoping to help.
With the violence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine escalating, sitting on the sidelines watching the atrocities is a challenge for medical professionals in Canada hoping to help.
Dr. Oleh Antonyshyn, a Ukrainian-Canadian cosmetic and reconstructive surgeon based in Toronto, has been on seven missions to Ukraine since the Crimean war, but has never witnessed his homeland in this kind of disarray.
“This is beyond a scale I think that anyone has seen (in Ukraine),” said Antonyshyn, who works out of Sunnybrook Hospital. “I think this is more on the scale of what you might see in the Second World War.”
“I am angry that this happened. It is unprecedented, and it’s totally uncalled for and a waste of human life and every possible way.”
Through his sources in Ukraine, Antonyshyn said there have been specific calls for doctors who specialize in “secondary post-traumatic reconstruction.” While Antonyshyn knows his experience in Ukraine — where he’s helped with dozens of reconstructive face surgeries for victims of bombings and shootings — could be useful, it’s not so easy to get there given the scale of the violence.
In previous years, Antonyshyn has taken dozens of doctors and health-care workers on trips to help Ukrainian medical services. During those trips, they’d often provide training and work alongside their Ukrainian counterparts in hospitals, but without safe passages in place, getting to the point of care would be impossible.
“I’d be there in a heartbeat. I think the responsible thing is to ensure that we can function safely in the safe zone,” he said. “Taking that little bit of extra time to organize ourselves so that we can be as productive and helpful as possible without impacting resources of our hosts in whatever country we go to. I think that’s very, very important.”
Antonyshyn said, more than likely, getting into Ukraine will be difficult if not impossible, but he does plan on going to border countries to potentially provide aid.
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