‘It really shook me’: Calgary surgeon spearheads drive to send supplies to Ukraine

A cardiac surgeon in Calgary has spearheaded a move to send medical and surgical supplies to Ukraine after seeing a doctor there treat open-heart surgery patients in a bomb shelter.

Dr. Paul Fedak, the director of the Libin Cardiovascular Institute at Foothills Medical Centre and a Ukrainian-Canadian, said he was watching a social media post months ago of a Ukrainian cardiac surgeon.

“I can only think about how difficult it is in our own health-care system and in my own practice to look after these patients,” Fedak said. “I can’t even imagine what it would be like trying to care for these patients during a war.”

The doctor Fedak was watching is Dr. Igor Mokryk, who was taking patients down into a bunker as bombs were going off overhead.

“I actually just pinged him on social media and he wrote me back right away and said that he was okay but they were really struggling to keep up,” Fedak said.

Fedak, his team and Alberta Health Services have put together a cardiac care package that includes about 30 boxes of personal protective equipment, dressings, catheters, syringes, surgical gowns and defibrillator electrodes.

He says the supplies are either surplus or past their recommended shelf-life but are safe to use. He said the boxes will be sent to a source that Ukraine is using in Poland, who will make sure the medical gear arrives safely.

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Fedek says the Heart Institute in Kyiv supplied a long list of items that are difficult to come by.

“We looked through every cupboard and you know every back room to try to find supplies that we could give up that would not be used ultimately,” Fedak said.

Fedak hopes to send more supplies and hopes other medical facilities will send surplus items as well.

“By providing some of these things, we’re going to be able to enable them to keep delivering care. With the latest attacks they’re suffering from electricity issues and it’s not safe to move,” Fedak said.

“All they need to do is open the boxes and right away they’re going to be able to use the materials.”

Fedak said he initially reached out to Mokryk out of compassion and wanted to make sure he was OK, saying, “I asked him if there was anything I could do to help not thinking there really was anything I could do other than hope for the best for him and cheer for him.”

It was after hearing back from him that he realized there was more that could be done.

“It really shook me because I’m a heart surgeon and because I’m a director of a cardiovascular institute, I know the challenges,” Fedak said.

“I’m also a Ukrainian-Canadian and grew up understanding the oppression of Communism and heard lots of stories growing up and the atrocities, so it just broke my heart to think what was happening there and reached out.”