NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Westchester Medical Center head and neck surgeon Dr. Augustine Moscatello recently spent nine days in Ukraine volunteering his time and services to help wounded civilians in the war-torn country.
“First place they took us was the basement of the hospital where the bomb shelter was,” Dr. Moscatello told WCBS 880.
As part of a humanitarian trip in September with Razom for Ukraine, Dr. Moscatello and a team of doctors performed 31 surgeries on soldiers and civilians at a regional hospital in Ivanko Frankivsk. During breaks, Dr. Moscatello explained, patients wore camouflage blankets for the front.
The team mostly focused on performing reconstructive surgery on wounds that had been quickly stitched up in the field.
“The [first] man was probably in his early 20s,” Dr. Moscatello told of his first patient. “And he had a black patch over his right eye indicating an injury to his right eye and he had his left leg sticking out from under the blanket and his left foot was missing.”
The doctors also repaired eye sockets, jaws and other parts of the head and neck.
Through it all, Dr. Moscatello said he is in awe of the Ukrainian spirit and hopes Americans will not forget the suffering that continues in the country.
“They're not giving up,” said Dr. Moscatello. “They're gonna go right to the end to resist having the country taken over by Russians.”
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