Amerikanische und ukrainische Ärzte führen gemeinsam komplexe mikrochirurgische Operationen durch, um die Gliedmaßen von Veteranen vor der Amputation zu bewahren.

**Read article here:** [**https://frontliner.ua/en/surgery-that-resembles-a-sacred-ritual/**](https://frontliner.ua/en/surgery-that-resembles-a-sacred-ritual/)

The doors of the freight elevator open, and a stretcher with a patient lying on his back emerges, followed quickly by orderlies. They make their way down a long corridor toward the operating room. A complex microsurgical procedure that could save the patient’s leg awaits him. Frontliner reports on how American and Ukrainian doctors perform such surgeries together.

…

The slightest mistake can lead to loss

Surgery can resemble a sacred ritual, and this is especially true for microsurgical procedures. A sterile surgical drape covers the patient from head to toe. Through it, his tattooed arm is visible, marked with a Scandinavian rune. The drape is opened near the man’s injured foot. Two surgeons, Americans Patrick Kelly and Steve Henry, lean over him, peering into the operating microscope. The doctors seem almost motionless. Yet the hands in blood-stained gloves move, millimeter by millimeter. This work requires exquisite precision: the sutures are made with threads finer than a human hair.

The man on the operating table is a soldier. The explosion caused a deep, extensive wound from the lower leg to the foot that cannot be closed by suturing the skin alone. They take a muscle flap from the patient’s back that retains its native circulation and connect its vessels to the vessels in the leg. These channels are so tiny that even a barely noticeable hand tremor can rupture the fragile vessel wall and immediately cut off blood flow. Without circulation, the tissue will not take and the patient will lose the limb. To keep the hand steady, the surgeon secures the hands to the patient’s body so that only the fingertips move. Proper posture isolates the instrument from the vibrations of the surgeon’s heart.

For six hours straight, the medical team remained on their feet, operating with intense concentration and complete self-control. As of today, this is the first and last surgery. Therefore, the medical team walks together down the operating department corridor, backpacks slung over their shoulders.

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A surgeon’s workday

For surgeries like these, Vladyslav Kozanchuk, an orthopedic traumatologist and physician at the Cherkasy Regional Hospital gets up around 5:30 a.m. every day. The doctor’s eyes betray his fatigue, though he insists that he does not feel it, at least not while he’s operating. By the fifth hour of surgery, it becomes harder to concentrate, but the real fatigue sets in outside the operating room

“After surgery, it takes me a while just to start walking,” Vladyslav says.

…

Andrii Makedon, a veteran, had complex shoulder surgery yesterday. The quiet conversation between the son and his parents is interrupted by American nurses who have entered the ward. They request an interpreter: “Ask if the family has any questions”. The veteran’s parents are modest and immediately try to leave the ward so as not to disturb the nurses. They are stopped and told that they can ask about their son’s health. The mother remains silent; the father wants to know just one thing:

“Will his arm work?” he asks.

There had been a significant risk of total amputation. Most of the bones in his arm were destroyed, although the nerves had, by some miracle, not been affected. Previous surgical attempts had failed. Doctors stated that a high amputation would be inevitable. Instead, microsurgical bone transplantation preserved Andrii’s arm.

“Everything will be fine. The bandages will be removed in a month. He needs to be active, even though it hurts,” says Jane McHatty, an experienced nurse with wavy gray hair. She specializes in wound care.

“Your son is very strong,” the nurse says, smiling.

“Thank you. Thank you (he adds in English),” says the father, smiling back.

…

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Fascinanting work! These heroes deserve the best!!

Heroes on the frontline and the operating room

Nice of POTUS to visit in pic 5!