Rebuilding Faces, Restoring Hope: MedCAD’s Journey With Vision for Ukraine
Earlier this week, MedCAD president and CEO Nancy Hairston returned from a medical mission trip with the Christian Medical Association of Ukraine. She accompanied four US doctors as they worked with local surgeons to reconstruct severe facial trauma with 100% custom implants created and donated by MedCAD. The US team in this “Vision for Ukraine” mission consisted of:
● Jorge Corona, an ophthalmologist sub-specializing in oculoplastic and orbital surgery
● Stuart Seiff, an ophthalmologist and a leader in oculoplastic surgery
● Patrick Carpenter, a microvascular surgeon specializing in complex head and neck reconstructions
● John Frodel, an ENT surgeon specializing in facial plastic surgery, on his eleventh surgical mission to Ukraine
This diary is adapted from text messages, voicemails, and video calls with the MedCAD team here in Dallas.
November 30
We arrived today in Kyiv at noon and went straight to the hospital to meet the team of surgeons, residents, and new patients. We were also able to meet patients we did implants for in previous mission trips, and I met one guy who is six months into his recovery. His whole cheek and eye were damaged, but he looks good, and he’s getting through it. He speaks very good English; a lot of the patients speak at least some English, and they’re so appreciative of what we’re doing here and they tell us that. There are also lots of hugs.
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So far, Kyiv feels like a normal city. People are walking around having dinner; the cafes are hopping and I haven’t seen a lot of devastation. But it’s not even 10pm yet, and most of the bombings happen early in the morning, well before dawn.
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This is a regional hospital, and not even a major one. But doctors Yurii Chepurnyl and Oleksandr Vasyliev are so talented and smart, and they’re doing so many cases a week it’s just mind-blowing. They’re developing a world-class cranio maxillofacial program here through collaboration with US-based surgeons, and training medical students at the same time.
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There’s an orbital floor recipient here who speaks perfect English, so we had quite a talk. He used to be the Ukraine manager for an Italian shoe brand before he got drafted. He’s blind in one eye and retired from the battle but happy to be alive. I asked what he plans to do next and he said he’d do logistics for the military. He’s not quitting.
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It’s 1 am and no air alert yet, so I am hoping to go to bed and not have to go to the shelter in the basement of the building. I’m exhausted.
December 1
Good evening from Kyiv! It has been a successful last two days of surgeries and meeting previous MedCAD implant recipients. There are lots of good feelings and gratitude from these brave people!
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These war injury cases are different from what we work with on a daily basis. The blasts can severely damage vessels, and there is often shrapnel left in faces. Today was a very complex case, a ‘two-fer’ of implants, a maxillary fibula flap reconstruction and an orbital floor.
Patrick, Oleksander, and Yurii did an 8-hour case yesterday. It was hairy, I won’t lie, but in the end they are very happy with the result. In the US, microvascular surgery for a fibula reconstruction has the surgeons working with microscopes, but they don’t have them here. And so Patrick, who is a freaking rock star young surgeon from San Francisco, had to do that case with little loupes on his glasses. It was tough, but he’s already committed to coming back on the next mission, and to getting some surgical microscopes for the hospital.
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We’re in the OR now, working on the orbital floor and the implant pretty much slid in. The patient has a functional eye so we’re going to be able to save his vision. Kudos to Dennis and the recon team on the design of these implants.
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Going to the hospital, seeing these patients. It’s just… I mean the kind of injuries, it’s heartbreaking. But on the other hand, we’re all really upbeat. The whole team is like, OK, roll up our sleeves and let’s help these people. That’s what we’re here for, you know?
Tomorrow is another VERY big day with the mandible recon and cranial implant. Send some good vibes!
December 2
You walk through the hospital and almost everybody’s missing an eye. Or both eyes. There are drones with grenades on them, and people are getting these blast injuries. Sometimes the explosion isn’t that close to them, but the pressure of the blast is ruining their eyes. Then there’s the shrapnel. I was in the room when one of the surgeons pulled a foreign object from deep in a patient’s face; it was a piece of a silicon chip from a drone.
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I mean, nobody’s brought their ego here. It’s been incredible to watch these surgeons, see them reading each other’s minds. They’ll tell each other, “OK, John can you jump in and help out with the loss of tissue around the cheek area,” or “Jorge, scrub in and take a look at this nerve situation.” It’s so cool to watch.
And these Ukrainian doctors are so incredibly talented. They’re doing so much trauma, and so we’re all learning from them. The collaboration is like choreography. The US and the Ukrainian docs have done five missions together and only about every six months, but it’s like a ballet.
It’s incredibly gratifying to be a part of this amazing group of people that are here and caring enough to use their time. They’re doing ten surgeries right now and they’re going to be in the OR till one in the morning again. They’re changing these people’s lives, giving them hope, giving them a little bit of a better future. It’s the hope that fuels this team. The surgeons keep saying that we’re like a family, and that includes everybody at MedCAD, working from afar. We’re all working for something much bigger than all of us.
December 3
Day 4 from Kyiv—our last in the capitol—and we are driving out tonight. No bombings while we’ve been here, which I am VERY grateful for. Orbital floor and maxilla implants went well today, and slid right in.
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We did three really intense cases the last three days, fibula reconstructions of the mandible and the maxilla. It’s not just the bony anatomy that’s affected by these injuries, it’s multi complex systems. The blasts cause soft tissue damage, so it takes tremendous skill and patience for Patrick, the microvascular surgeon, to connect arteries and veins for the harvested bone and tissue.
The approaches have just been a little bit different than they would be ordinarily. In one case yesterday, there was so much scar tissue that they had to think on the fly and open up the face in a pretty unconventional way. Nothing is straightforward.
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As a company, we’re highly skilled at cancer reconstruction, but we don’t do explosion trauma like this, so I’m learning a lot. A patient we did yesterday had a crushed-up cheekbone. We had used his imaging to see where the fragments of the bones were when we made the implant, but when they got in the OR, they didn’t even have to use the cutting guides because everything was already broken.
December 4
We’re in Lviv right now. It’s a beautiful old European town, like a movie. The bombings and artillery and drones have been happening in Kyiv, but not so much here. But still, we just went to a restaurant that had basements that they use as a bomb shelter. People aren’t living like they’re in fear, but they are obviously living with daily stress.
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Today we’re at a Children’s Hospital. Jorge and Stuart are doing ocular plastic cases tonight. Many are congenital defects—they don’t have a good program for complex ocular plastics here—and those kinds of defects don’t stop during wars. One of the kids we saw was hurt in a bomb blast. He lost his legs and some fingers and his face is damaged. And he’s 16. We may end up doing an implant for his face.
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But you sit here and go, what is this all for? Why?
I mean, it’s senseless. It’s absolutely senseless.
A whole generation.
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The message I want to send back is that these people are suffering, and any one of us can contribute in some small way, and that that can make more of a difference than you could ever imagine. And that’s what we get the opportunity to do. And I hope I get that message across to all of the staff in Dallas. You know how proud I am of my team, that we’re able to do this.
This is what we do every day in the United States, but you get to really feel it in a place like this. These people aren’t living on the moon like our media tells us. We’re all part of a global village, and when it comes to how we can help, Ukraine is just as close as Denver or Pittsburgh or Jacksonville or wherever else we do surgical planning for.
We are making a difference. “We” meaning people in the United States, and these surgeons, and “we” meaning MedCAD. I just want everyone at the company—from the person segmenting to the case management, to the person making the implant, to the person shipping it—to know that every single one of us is making a difference.
Photos provided by Christian Medical Association of Ukraine & Vision for Ukraine. Photo credit: Illya Larionov
Vision for Ukraine is an international medical initiative that, since May 2024, has been helping military personnel and civilians with severe facial injuries, including orbital trauma and loss of the eye. The program brings together leading US surgeons and Ukrainian specialists, creating a unique multidisciplinary approach to treating injuries among the most complex in wartime medicine. International partners have invested almost $750,000 in Ukrainian medicine through the series of Vision for Ukraine reconstructive missions, covering custom 3D implants and the work of world-leading surgeons who come to Ukraine to restore service members after severe combat injuries. Over two years, the team has assisted more than 130 patients, some of whom required multi-stage reconstruction.
The mission is conducted by the Christian Medical Association of Ukraine in collaboration with:
Ed’s Friends, US charity
ASOEP, Association of Oculoplastic and Eye Prosthetics Specialists, Ukraine
Razom for Ukraine, US-Ukrainian charitable fund
MedCAD, Manufacturer of truly custom 3D implants
