The Co-Pilot trip number 7 started in mid September. Three American doctors continued their collaboration and neurosurgical training of Ukrainian colleagues in three Ukrainian cities.
On the last trip of 2018, three American doctors – Luke Tomycz (neurosurgeon from Rutgers University Hospital), Jonathan Forbes (neurosurgeon from Univ of Cincinnati), and Jefferson Miley (neurointerventional specialist from Austin TX) – worked with partners at Romodanov Institute, the International Neurosurgery Center (Kurilets clinic), Lviv Trauma Hospital (Andrij Netliuk, Victor Salo), Lviv Children’s Hospital (Igor Homeniuk), and Lutsk Regional Children’s Hospital (Mykhailo Lovga). The team consulted on approximately 90 patients and helped perform 8 craniotomies, 2 spinal surgeries, and 3 aneurysm coilings. At Romadanov, the American doctors observed a few surgeries and made contacts with Mikola Huk (endonasal surgeon) and Mikhailo Kostiuk (cerebrovasc surgeon).
They also participated with the two neurosurgeons from Romodanov in a neuroscience seminar that was organized by Mariya Soroka in conjunction with Ivanka Nebor and INgenious and which was attended by nearly 200 residents and students in neurology, ENT, and surgery subspecialty fields. Dr. Ripeckyj, past president of UMANA, was also in attendance. It was a fruitful collaboration with the INgenius platform, which allowed the American doctors present on the following topics:
– Jefferson Miley, MD, Department of Neurology, Seton Brain and Spine, Dell Medical School, University of Texas – gave a lecture on “Management of stroke”,
– Luke Tomycz, MD, Department of Neurosurgery, Rutgers University Hospital – talked about surgical treatment of patients with epilepsy and medical innovations in this field,
– Jonathan Forbes, MD, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Cincinnati Medical Center – presented a lecture: “Evolving concepts in minimally-invasive skull base surgery”.
Razom is looking forward to more collaborative projects with INgenius in the future.
A second instructional lecture was held in Lviv the following week moderated by Dr. Andrij Netliuk.
Dr. Luke Tomycz says: “In summary, our team continue to be enthusiastic about the project and see the fruits of our labor in terms of training surgeons in Ukraine and hopefully increasing collaboration and affecting the culture”.
Razom Co-Pilot team is grateful to Dr. Jeff Miley for bringing over $100K in stents/catheters/coils and other surgical equipment. Many of the Ukrainian surgeons CPP worked with have expressed a wishlist of equipment they need. And Razom is excited about our collaboration with Vitaliy Dubil and Support Hospitals in Ukraine in bringing the much-needed medical equipment to Ukraine.
At this time, after concluding 5 trips to Ukraine, the Co-Pilot Project team have assisted in around 75 major neurosurgical operations [will have the exact numbers soon] and consulted multiple hundreds of patients free of charge.
As Dr. Igor Kurilets from the International Neurosurgery Center in Kyiv says about collaboration with the CPP: “Thanks to such powerful support from our American colleagues, which we have been receiving for more than 2 years, we have greatly improved our knowledge and skills in brain surgery”.
Razom is thankful to all our supporters who have made generous donations to the project, and thus made these trips and neurosurgical trainings a reality! Much is achieved, but the CPP team does not think of stopping there, and their GOALS for future include:
1) continue trips to assist Ukrainian neurosurgeons in surgeries
- planning the next trip in May 2019 [hoping to continue the successful Rutgers-Romodanov connection]
- working with Drs. Geck and Murdock (from SPINEHOPE, Austin TX) to schedule a trip to do pediatric scoliosis surgery
- numerous surgeons in the U.S. have approached Dr. Luke Tomycz expressing interest in traveling to Ukraine
2) continue growing our network of surgeon partners in Ukraine
In addition to the current partners: at Romadanov: Dr. Guk, Dr. M. Kostiuk, and Dr. K. Kostiuk, at the International NSG Center: Dr. I. Kurilets and the team, in Lutsk: Dr. M. Lovga, in Lviv: doctors Netliuk, Dyakiv, Salo, and the Odesa Children’s Hospital;
the potential new partners include:
Dr. Luke Tomycz was approached by a trauma hospital in Kyiv and another hospital in Lviv with interest from the surgeons to expand their capabilities and begin working with the CPP. There is a progressive group in Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Vinnitsya, and Dnipro, all of whom are worthwhile contacts to establish. The project team has had a meeting with a philanthropist Alex Rovt who is very interested in CPP supporting scoliosis surgery in Zakarpattya.
Donate today to see more CPP trips and more life-saving surgeries happen.
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