How can we in the West appreciate what is happening to the people living in the conflict zone? One unlikely way is to reconsider Geoffrey Smith\u2019s powerful 2007 documentary The English Surgeon<\/em>. The film deals with how medicine is practised in Ukraine and puts a personal face on what life (in more promising times, perhaps) is like for Ukrainians.<\/p>\n This film reveals how two dedicated neurosurgeons make do with scarce medical supplies with a goal to improve their patients\u2019 quality of life. In the course of this sophisticated British-produced documentary, viewers become intimately acquainted with the hospital exploits of this medical odd couple: Dr. Henry Marsh, a British neurosurgeon, and his Ukrainian counterpart, Dr. Igor Petrovich Kurilets. Smith\u2019s movie is enlightening and viewers can glean much about Marsh\u2019s point of view. In his experience, performing the surgery itself is not the hard part, it\u2019s knowing when to treat that\u2019s complicated.<\/p>\n Early in the film, Marsh talks about the importance for him of helping other people; he questions what we are if we don\u2019t try to help others. When the movie was filmed, Marsh had already been volunteering in Ukraine for 16 years. He tells us that when he first started his project, he found surgical conditions comparable to those that existed in the West 60 years prior. He was appalled at the misdiagnoses he encountered, and by the stories of patients that could have been helped had they received appropriate medical interventions earlier.<\/p>\n The film exudes irony and humor as viewers get to know Marsh. He explains that he always liked working with machines and using his hands. He also enjoys the sensory aspects of working with wood. At one point, he says that surgeons like blood, and he likens surgery to a kind of sport.<\/p>\n Kurilets displays no less of a quirky wit. For instance, he points out a painting hanging on his wall. In the picture are happy Cossacks sitting around a table. Kurilets thinks there are many similarities between Cossacks and surgeons. He comments that in the painting, the Cossacks could be gathered around an operating room table. He appreciates the Cossacks\u2019 aggressiveness. Actually, his own pro-activeness has gotten him into trouble with the authorities; he later reveals that he was unemployed for two years following repeated run-ins with the Soviet system. Ironically, he currently rents rooms from a hospital run by the KGB, his former nemesis.<\/p>\n Kurilets is still a doer today, albeit perhaps slightly more pragmatic than he once was. He has plans to build a new hospital. He underscores his philosophy of life by explaining that the point is not to just make plans \u2013 something that happened a lot in the former Soviet Union \u2013 but to actually do, to get things done.<\/p>\n In fact, these two individuals are pragmatism personified. Marsh and Kurilets buy brain surgery tools in the local open-air market. Kurilets\u2019 Bosch drill comes from this market. Marsh also regularly donates equipment to Kurilet\u2019s practice. In an understated way, we learn some of the real costs of surgery in this area of the former Soviet Union versus the West: the 80 Sterling drill bits that Marsh\u2019s hospital uses once<\/em> will be used by Kurilets for 10 years.<\/p>\n Marsh also confronts deeper issues. He struggles with being able to leave patients with hope, even when there is nothing that surgically can be done.<\/p>\n One patient who can be treated is Marian, a young, rural man of limited financial resources. Marian has a brain tumor that could either leave him severely disabled or kill him. The doctors tell him that the only way they can help is by conducting brain surgery, but without anesthesia. Marian agrees.<\/p>\n The operating room in which this incredible procedure takes place is so small that, at one point, a member of the surgical team has to bend down, almost crawling to get to the other side of the room. Even in this incredibly tense scene, Marsh reveals his wry humor by saying that the healthy section of the brain should look \u201clike a good cream cheese,\u201d not rubber. He does not underestimate the tremendous vitality of the organ on which he operates, however. In surgery, he says, \u201cWe are the brain.\u201d<\/p>\n Sharing some of the soul-searching he does in his practice, Marsh humbly admits that he has made some big mistakes. He narrates the painful story of one young Ukrainian patient that he brought to England for surgery. Marsh reveals that both of Tanya\u2019s surgeries went terribly wrong. Even today, he can\u2019t put Tanya\u2019s story aside. He tells Kurilets that he thinks about Tanya a lot. Kurilets agrees that there were lessons to be learned from her case. But Marsh doesn\u2019t just contemplate Tanya; he seeks physical contact with this lost patient. In a haunting moment of tremendous honesty and humanity, he pays a visit to her family members. He reveals to Tanya\u2019s family how nervous he was before the visit.<\/p>\n The English Surgeon<\/em> is a powerful movie, stunning, but frequently heart-wrenching. It displays not just the truth of the situation in Ukraine, but the truth about people.<\/p>\n The film is available online without charge at documentarystorm.com\/the-english-surgeon<\/a> or on Netflix Canada. You can view an interview with the filmmaker at pbs.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n Deborah Rubin Fields<\/strong> is an Israel-based features writer. She is also the author of <\/em>Take a Peek Inside: A Child\u2019s Guide to Radiology Exams, published in English, Hebrew and Arabic.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>***<\/em><\/p>\n A number of organizations are trying to help civilians in Ukraine. Working at opposite ends of the life spectrum are two Jewish charities: the Survivor Mitzvah Project (survivormitzvah.org<\/a>), which helps elderly Holocaust survivors residing in Ukraine, and Tikva Children\u2019s Home (tikvaodessa.org<\/a>), whose mission is to care for \u201cthe homeless, abandoned and abused Jewish children of Ukraine and neighboring regions of the former Soviet Union.\u201d<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n![\"image](\"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/feb-20-film.20.English-Surgeon.jpg\")
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