Dr Iryna Ovchar from Ukraine is visiting the Greenlane Clinical Centre. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Dr Iryna Ovchar from Ukraine is visiting the Greenlane Clinical Centre. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Since arriving in Auckland Dr Iryna Ovchar has noticed a few differences - the windy weather, foreign food, and an absence of air raid sirens.
The 28-year-old ophthalmologist is from Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, a picturesque town near the Carpathian Mountains.
The region is in the country’s west, but within range of Russia’s missile attacks, which are indiscriminate and have killed scores of innocent civilians.
Air raid alerts are common both during the day and night, and accommodation is scarce as tens of thousands of displaced people from Ukraine’s east and south seek refuge.
Hospitals treat wounded soldiers and civilians, and the war-time footing has disrupted the vital training and development of specialists like Ovchar.
To try and counter this, the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons has helped send young Ukrainian ophthalmologists abroad to spend weeks observing surgeries and treatments and learn from senior specialists.
Another aim is to show Ukrainian colleagues they’re not forgotten, as Russia’s full-scale invasion grinds into its 17 month.
Dr Iryna Ovchar from Ukraine is visiting the Greenlane Clinical Centre, hosted by Dr Richard Hart, an oculoplastic surgeon. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Oculoplastic surgeon Dr Richard Hart successfully applied to the society for funding to help host Ovchar in New Zealand, with other support from the Royal Australian and NZ College of Ophthalmologists.
She’s observed his and other surgeons’ work at the Greenlane Clinical Centre, and in between has
walked in Cornwall Park, visited Waiheke Island, Piha, and Hobbiton.
Being on the other side of the world has been surreal and hard. During her time here a Russian missile destroyed a block of flats in Lviv, a city near her home, killing 10.
Her older sister is in the military and her younger sister’s husband is fighting on the frontlines, far from home and his two young children.
“We are very nervous. Every day he is under fire,” Ovchar told the Herald.
“It is very painful for our family and painful for our country. Lots of my friends are fighting. We all try to donate for our army, and help each other.”
Hart hopes other Ukrainian ophthalmologists can be hosted here - ideally in pairs to support each other - and is searching for sponsorship to help cover costs including airfares. Hospitals in Australia are also keen to host placements.
He and Ovchar are in scrubs for our interview with a morning of surgeries to follow. She has also spent time with corneal, retinal and strabismus (eye movement) surgeons.
“We have tried to design a programme most relevant for managing trauma…and also some things that she may not usually come across in her centre back home,” Hart said.
Ovchar will start the long return journey on August 4, after a quick visit to Queenstown. She will eventually land in Warsaw, and then cross the Polish-Ukraine border by train.
She is appreciative of her training and time here, but misses home.
“It’s been a little bit difficult,” Ovchar said. “Because here it is a very calm, relaxing life - it’s like something that’s new for me. But I miss my family and work.”
Russia’s bloody invasion makes no sense, up close or from afar, she said.
“We don’t understand why. That’s our one question - for what reason?”
Nicholas Jones is an investigative reporter at the New Zealand Herald. He won the best individual investigation and best social issues reporter categories at the 2023 Voyager Media Awards, including for recent reporting from Ukraine.
