Many Ukrainian children need care for years after a burn injury. Traveling to Boston is long and expensive, and it is hard on families. So we decided to bring the care to them.
Lviv, Ukraine (2011)
In 2011, we opened the first Shriners Hospitals for Children Outreach Clinic in Eastern Europe, at the Burn Center of Lviv City Hospital No. 8. Dr. Vasyl Savchyn, Director of the Lviv Burn Unit, organized the clinic together with Dr. Gennadiy Fuzaylov and Dr. Daniel Driscoll of Shriners Hospital for Children – Boston and Massachusetts General Hospital. The Ukrainian National Women’s League of America (UNWLA) funded the trip, the doctors donated their time, and Shriners Boston and MGH donated the supplies.
At each clinic, U.S. doctors work side by side with Ukrainian physicians. They follow up children already treated at Shriners Boston and evaluate new patients with burns, orthopedic conditions, and cleft lip and palate. Children who need complex surgery can be referred to Shriners Boston.
Annual Missions Across Ukraine
Since then, our team has returned to Ukraine every year to provide free plastic and reconstructive surgery to children with burn scars and congenital conditions. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the mission continued. From September 12 to 19, 2021, our team worked at Dnipropetrovsk Regional Children’s Hospital in Dnipro and performed complex surgery on almost 30 patients from all over Ukraine. The doctors and nurses came from Massachusetts, Missouri, Illinois, California, Texas and Maryland, with major support from the Children’s Burn Foundation and UNWLA.
Read about the Dnipro 2021 mission →
Łęczna, Poland (2023)
After the war began in 2022, we could no longer safely bring our team into Ukraine. For the first time, the mission went to Poland, to keep both the doctors and the children safe.
In May 2023, 17 Ukrainian children crossed the border to meet our physicians at the Independent Public Health Care Facility in Łęczna, a small town about 20 miles from the Ukrainian border. Three more children came from Poland and the Netherlands, where they live as refugees. The children, aged 2 to 19, traveled with their guardians and several Ukrainian physicians, and over five days they received reconstructive and plastic surgery. Our volunteer doctors came from Michigan, Texas, Massachusetts and Missouri and operated on all 20 children. Treatment was free for every family.
Some children also received laser treatments to soften their burn scars. A Ukrainian psychiatrist traveled with the families and stayed with them to provide mental health support for the children and their parents. The week became almost like a burn camp, where Ukrainian kids and their mothers could bond.
During the mission, our team also studied the mental health of the children and their caregivers. We found a high number of children at risk for, or already meeting criteria for, mental health disorders, which shows that surgical missions need integrated mental health support.
Read the study in the Journal of Burn Care & Research (2024) →
Why It Matters
Families save days of travel, missed school and missed work. Ukrainian doctors gain hands-on experience working with the U.S. team. And children get expert care close to home, even during the war.
Read the USA Today coverage of the 2023 mission →