To the SVS community:
Several years ago, we were fortunate to host a visiting Ukrainian vascular surgeon at MCW by the name of Dr. Yuriy Orel. He was introduced to us by one of our PM&R faculty, Dr. Oksana Sayko, who was a medical school classmate. Yuriy spent three months with us, and his description of vascular services in Ukraine at that time was pretty grim. Instruments were a bit primitive and disposable supplies weren't readily available. Patients needing PTFE bypass grafts, for example, were given names of people to go to on the street to purchase the graft and then return for surgery when they had secured the graft.
Now Yuriy's city of Lviv has been devastated by war.
Yuriy contacted us via our mutual colleague last week. They need supplies for wartime vascular surgery - specifically PTFE grafts, bifurcated Dacron grafts, Prolene suture (3-0 through 7-0), VAC dressings of all kinds, midline and PICC catheters for IV access, Fogarty catheters, Castro-Viejo needle drivers, fine tissue forceps, shunts, handheld Doppler machines and perhaps an old decommissioned but still functional ultrasound machine. From a non-vascular standpoint, they are looking for external fixator supplies and tourniquets. They already have enough PPE and cannot accept fluids or aerosols.
The Ukrainian Medial Association of North America (website: umana.org) is organizing the shipment of these supplies; one shipment has left Chicago, and the warehouse operation is now moving to Germantown WI (a few miles from our hospital here). I recognize that there are hundreds of medical missions out there that all need help, and certainly no one wants to detract from those; but if you or your institution can spare any of the supplies above and can ship them here, I will organize and catalog all of them and we will get them to the warehouse when it is open. We will be collecting them in our offices in Milwaukee.
If you can help, please ship any supplies to:
Dr. Peter Rossi
8701 W Watertown Plank Rd
Medical College of Wisconsin
Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery
Milwaukee, WI 53226
Feel free to email me directly at prossi@mcw.edu or call/text my cell at 414.399.3241 with any questions or concerns. Our vascular colleagues and their desperate patients enduring unbelievable hardship in Ukraine will appreciate any help you can offer.
My sincere best wishes,
Pete Rossi