Apr 26, 2007
Darien doctor helps heal children overseas
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It took 14 years of medical school for Dr. Anya Kishinevsky to become a plastic surgeon — a profession that appealed most to her creative side and her desire to improve her patients’ lives.
“It’s not limiting,” said Kishinevsky, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who joined the Aesthetic Surgery Center in Darien in July 2006. “I work from head to toe and on newborns to senior citizens and everyone in between.”
Last year, she and six other surgeons traveled to the Petchaburri Province in Thailand to perform free reconstructive surgery on children with congenital deformities who would otherwise not have access to such procedures. The trip was sponsored by Healing the Children, a non-profit organization comprised of professionals who make sure children worldwide get the medical care they need. The organization has helped more than 146,000 children since its inception in 1979.
Kishinevsky and her team, led by Dr. Mark Weinstein of Yale-New Haven Hospital, tended to about 150 kids in 10 days. Most suffered from such facial deformities as cleft lips and pallets, but there were a few with traumatic and burn-related injuries.
“We tried to get as many children in as possible to make the most difference,” Kishinevsky said. “Some families walked 50 or 60 miles on foot when they heard their child could possibly get surgery. Some parents slept under the hospital beds because there was no place else for them to sleep.”
Knowing these circumstances made it harder for the doctors to turn down potential patients because they needed more than one surgery or follow-up treatment that was too complicated for the local hospitals.
“We spent two or three days triaging to decide who could be done, who couldn’t and who would have the most significant benefit from one surgery,” Kishinevsky said. “Some surgeries could have been fantastic, interesting, life-changing, but they were too complex for the hospitals. It was heartbreaking to turn them away.”
But it was heart-warming to see the reaction from the patients they were able to treat and their families.
“Handing these children back to their mothers looking beautiful and repaired was a wonderful experience, really touching,” Kishinevsky said. “The local population was so grateful that every night they tried to do something for us — a dance, dinner with the mayor.”
As tired as they were after a 12-hour day, she said it was nearly impossible to refuse an invitation to such activities. Not that Kishinevsky gets much rest when she finally climbs into bed.
“You wonder about the ones you can’t help, about not being at the top of your game and every complication is tough — every blood clot, every laceration,” she said. “I spend sleepless nights thinking if I could have done (the procedure) better, if I gave it my all.”
Those thoughts crept up twice as often in Thailand, where she and her colleagues dealt with conditions that were not always ideal.
For instance, to maximize the time they had, the doctors conducted two surgeries at the same time in each of the four operating rooms. They also found themselves repairing cleft lips on two 1 month olds — a surgery usually not performed until a child is at least 3 months old.
“We thought they were healthy enough and this was their only chance,” Kishinevsky said.
If they did not operate, she said the lips would continue to grow apart as the baby grew up.
“We saw kids who were 5 or 10 years old with their lips wide open because they never had anything done,” Kishinevsky said. “They just sort of learned to live with it. I’m excited that I got to help out.”
She would like to help some more children in the future. However, unlike last time, she will be able to operate without attending supervision now that she has completed her six-year residency following her undergraduate and graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, respectively.
Also unlike last time, Kishinevsky will have to pay her own way for the next trip. Because she was still a resident, Yale-New Haven Hospital covered her expenses for Thailand.
“I’ll have to take time off from my practice and shell out the money for a plane ticket and my hotel,” Kishinevsky said. “But it’s worth it. I always wanted to have a significant aspect of my practice.”
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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