Oleh Antonyshyn

Dr. Oleh Antonyshyn is actively engaged in humanitarian surgery initiatives and global surgery education. April 2014, he travelled to Ukraine as part of a Medical Needs Assessment team to evaluate regional capacity to manage trauma. Since then, he has led 7 Canadian surgical missions to Ukraine, to teach and perform craniofacial reconstructive procedures in war casualties. Feb 2016, he received the Order of Merit from the president of Ukraine, and Nov 2018, he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal by the Governor General of Canada for his efforts.  

March 2022, in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion, Dr. Antonyshyn initiated the Canada Ukraine Surgery Aid Program to specifically address the needs of civilian and military casualties. The program focuses on providing complex post-traumatic reconstruction and involves a comprehensive 60-member team of Canadian.

The program relies on virtual triage of war casualties, transportation of patients to a host hospital in Poland, complex multispecialty reconstruction and then postoperative repatriation to Ukraine. To date, 4 such missions have been successfully completed. 

Recognizing that surgical education is fundamental to building regional self-sufficiency, Dr. Antonyshyn launched the Sunnybrook Ukraine Surgery Education Initiative in 2019. Live surgery demonstrations, symposia, sponsored observerships and fellowships are complemented by specifically designed surgical skills training modules in facial fracture repair and microsurgery. SUSEI donation page: https://donate.sunnybrook.ca/ukraine

"We are confident that focusing on surgical education will very rapidly and effectively build regional capacity to manage the overwhelmingly high volume of post-traumatic defects and deformities resulting from Russia’s war on Ukraine."