While wheeling the teen into the operating room, Dr. Oleh Antonyshyn shared a special moment with his patient. "Are you ready for this?" he asked.

Vyacheslav didn't miss a beat. "I've been waiting for this for 15 years."

Vyacheslav was just two years old when an electrical burn left him with massive facial trauma.

The entire lower half of his nose and nasal airways were missing, and lip burn scars impaired his speech and ability to smile. Now 17, Vyacheslav hasn't just paid a physical price for his accident; the reactions of his peers have taken a major toll on his emotional and mental health.

First mission of a new surgical partnership

Since 2014, Dr. Antonyshyn, head of the Adult Craniofacial Program at Sunnybrook, has travelled with a team of surgeons and other health-care professionals to Ukraine to conduct complex surgeries on patients like Vyacheslav.

In September 2019, the year of Vyacheslav’s surgery, the role of the medical mission became much greater: to not only help patients, but also to train, educate and equip Ukrainian surgeons and clinical teams with the capacity to provide advanced surgical services.

Sunnybrook partnered with Canada-Ukraine Foundation and three hospitals in Lviv to launch the Ukraine Surgical Educational and Training Partnership, with the support from generous donors, including the Temerty Family Foundation and Ihnatowycz Family Foundation.

Led by program founder and lead surgeon Dr. Antonyshyn, Canada’s 11-member Sunnybrook medical team departed for Lviv on Friday October 25, 2019 with 460 kilograms of medical supplies and equipment to embark on the partnership’s first mission.

After arriving, the Sunnybrook medical team hosted an organizational meeting with the members of the Ukrainian medical team co-led by Dr. Ivan Stepanovych Bohdan, chief of the Military Hospital of the Western Operational Command and Dr. Wasyl Savchyn, head of the Centre for Emergency Medicine and Plastic Surgery at the Communal Municipal Clinic Hospital 8.

Within less than a week, the team conducted 26 surgeries in three operating rooms at two hospitals. Camera transmitted live video to an auditorium, so trainees could learn from the specialists.

Worth the wait

Vyacheslav’s reconstruction, which involved both microsurgery and craniofacial teams working simultaneously, took more than 12 hours. Sunnybrook’s and Ukraine’s surgeons painstakingly reconstructed a new upper lip from local tissue. Bone and cartilage from Vyacheslav’s rib were used to build a new nasal framework, and the specialists transferred healthy forearm skin to create a functioning airway. Finally, they used a forehead skin flap to fashion a new nasal surface.

The next day, with his mother and medical team by his side, Vyacheslav took his first breath through his reconstructed nose — a life-changing moment that Dr. Antonyshyn will not soon forget.

“In that moment, we saw how a single surgical intervention can be life-changing, providing patients like Vyacheslav with hope for a bright new future. The sense of gratitude he shared was overwhelming.”