Dr. Serguei Melnitchouk (heart) of Massachusetts Common Hospital is coaching Ukrainian surgeons Volodymyr Voitko (left) and Vitalii Sokolov (proper) on easy methods to carry out coronary heart and lung transplants to allow them to do them of their dwelling nation. Picture taken Nov. 17, 2022, at MGH.
Daniel Ackerman/Daniel Ackerman
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Daniel Ackerman/Daniel Ackerman
Dr. Serguei Melnitchouk (heart) of Massachusetts Common Hospital is coaching Ukrainian surgeons Volodymyr Voitko (left) and Vitalii Sokolov (proper) on easy methods to carry out coronary heart and lung transplants to allow them to do them of their dwelling nation. Picture taken Nov. 17, 2022, at MGH.
Daniel Ackerman/Daniel Ackerman
BOSTON — There is a rhythm to most surgical procedures at Massachusetts Common Hospital in Boston: the beep of a coronary heart monitor, the surgeon’s requires “scalpel … scissors … clamp.” However at the moment, that rhythm sounds totally different. It is blended with quiet chatter in Ukrainian.
The surgeon, Dr. Serguei Melnitchouk, is repairing a affected person’s leaky coronary heart valve. He explains his method to 2 observing docs, each thoracic surgeons visiting from Feofaniya Scientific Hospital in Kyiv. They’ve traveled to Boston for a crash course in among the most advanced procedures in drugs: coronary heart and lung transplants.
Ukraine has lengthy lacked a full-service organ transplant heart. Beforehand, sufferers who wanted a brand new set of lungs would journey overseas for the process, funded by the nation’s common healthcare system. However that funding has been drained by Ukraine’s battle effort, and different nations have restricted foreigners’ entry to transplant providers. So some Ukrainian sufferers are left with out the prospect for a life-saving transplant. The crash course at Massachusetts Common Hospital (MGH) goals to vary that. It can permit the Ukrainian docs to open their very own lung transplant heart — giving sufferers hope for a greater future, even amid the shadows of battle.
An opportunity to assist
Melnitchouk has spent his decade-long profession as a cardiothoracic surgeon at MGH in Boston. However he was born in western Ukraine. His mother and father nonetheless dwell within the agricultural city the place he grew up.
In April, in the course of the chaotic early days of Russia’s invasion, Melnitchouk traveled again to Ukraine to lend his experience to the battle effort. He taught trauma care to docs at three native hospitals the place beds had been filling up with the wounded. Exterior the hospitals, roadsides had been affected by burnt-out tanks and tree trunks whose canopies had been blown off by missiles. The sights had been arduous to course of.
“It was painful,” mentioned Melnitchouk. “That is your nation the place you grew up, and you’ll’t acknowledge it. It was hurting my coronary heart.”
He needed to do extra to assist.
Alternative arose when he spoke with docs on the hospitals he was visiting. They stored inquiring a couple of process seemingly unrelated to the urgent wartime issues.
“In all three hospitals they had been asking about [organ] transplants,” mentioned Melnitchouk. “I used to be like, ‘Why are you asking about transplants? You’re in a time of battle.’ “
Melnitchouk discovered that Ukraine had solely just lately opened transplant facilities for organs like kidneys and livers, however the nation nonetheless lacked capability to transplant lungs, partly as a result of technical challenges.
“Lungs are one of many hardest transplants,” mentioned Melnitchouk, who has accomplished dozens of profitable lung transplants.
He says the problem arises from the organs’ advanced vascular construction and a excessive threat of immune system rejection after the process. Plus, lungs are available in pairs.
“When you end one lung, it’s important to do it once more,” he mentioned. “So it is a longer operation.”
Sufferers in want of that operation are unable to obtain it now, in keeping with Vasyl Strilka, who leads the event of an organ transplant system for Ukraine’s Ministry of Well being. The cash-strapped authorities can not foot the $150,000 invoice for every affected person despatched overseas. (Many docs in Ukraine have labored with out pay for months.)
Strilka provides that India and Belarus, the place Ukrainians beforehand traveled for transplants, each just lately handed legal guidelines limiting foreigners’ capability to obtain the process there.
Strilka knew Ukraine needed to open its personal lung transplant heart. The process will be the one choice for sufferers with end-stage lung illness, usually brought on by superior COPD or cystic fibrosis. So when Strilka met Melnitchouk throughout his April journey to Ukraine, they hatched a plan with the assistance of Oksana Dmitrieva, a member of Ukraine’s parliament who has led the push for a neighborhood transplant heart.
Ukraine would ship a group of 13 docs to Melnitchouk’s observe at MGH, the place they’d spend three months studying methods for lung and coronary heart transplant. This system’s first hurdle was funding.
“Our unique plan was that they’d simply lease Airbnbs, and they’d dwell in flats near the hospital,” mentioned Melnitchouk. “However the Ministry of Well being is fairly broke proper now.”
A house away from dwelling
By reaching out by church networks in Boston, they discovered volunteer households to host the docs, who arrived in early October.
The association has allowed the guests to expertise New England at its fall best. Dr. Vitalii Sokolov, a thoracic surgeon from Feofaniya Hospital, mentioned his Boston host household took him leaf-peeping in New Hampshire one weekend. Plus, he sampled a bowl of New England clam chowder. His overview of the soup: “not impressed.” Sokolov is impressed by his host household’s openness and generosity.
“I’d say that I’ve one other mom and father within the States,” he joked.
However Sokolov’s ideas by no means stray removed from his family again in Kyiv. He wakes at 5 a.m. every day to name them, checking that they’ve electrical energy and warmth amid Russian assaults on power infrastructure. Then, Sokolov heads into the hospital for coaching.
He and the opposite visiting docs have noticed three lung transplant operations since they arrived.
“I’ve obtained the impression that lung transplantation, and transplantation generally, is a group recreation,” Sokolov mentioned, referring to the crew of docs and nurses who support the affected person by the prolonged post-operative remedy.
Sokolov is observing that group in motion at MGH. In December, he’ll return to Kyiv to steer his personal group at Ukraine’s new transplant heart. Melnitchouk plans to be there for the primary few transplants, to make sure the Ukrainian group’s easy transition from coaching to observe.
For now, Melnitchouk is grateful for the prospect to talk his native language within the working room with the visiting docs.
“That is my first time in my life — in my final 9 years attending — to talk Ukrainian. I am truly very, very completely satisfied,” mentioned Melnitchouk, choking up. “I am very grateful that I had this opportunity to someway give again one thing to my nation.”
