Dallas surgeon aids reconstructive surgery in Ukraine
A Dallas-based surgeon plans to make his fourth trip to Ukraine next year. He recently performed reconstructive surgery on an injured Ukrainian soldier who lost both his eyes in the war.
As the war in Ukraine stretches on, inside a Kyiv hospital Dallas-based surgeon Dr. Jorge Corona is operating on a Ukrainian soldier injured by Russian troops.
He lost both his eyes in battle.
Corona used custom-designed, 3D printed facial surgical implants created and donated by Dallas-based Medcad to recreate the soldier’s face.
“We’re giving them back a little bit of their humanity that they lost,” Corona said.
The medical mission was sponsored by Dallas” Leap Global Missions.
Corona is part of the “Dallas Medical Miracle Team.” He has just returned from Ukraine and got a chance to see Medcad’s Plano printing facility.
Medcad’s CEO and President Nancy Hairston showed Corona the machines and the process used to create the implants that make surgeries like the one performed by Corona a possibility.
“Here is the bed and the titanium is brushed across, and the laser beam hardens each layer,” Hairston said.
While in Kyiv, Corona met a U.S. citizen nicknamed, “Gandalf.” Gandalf came to Ukraine to join the army and fight against Russian forces. He, too, was injured on the front lines.
Corona did not operate on Gandalf, but he did follow up with the surgeon who reconstructed his mandibles using Medcad implants.
“He has a jaw injury,” Corona said. “He had a bullet go through his jaw.”
Corona says doing humanitarian work fills his heart, and he considers it a blessing to be trusted by injured soldiers disfigured by battle.
“I find that I am not going to carry a weapon because I’m not a soldier,” Corona said. “But in my area of expertise as a doctor, I can deliver care to these patients and hope to the country.”
