Co-Pilot Project Provides Surgical Guidance, Equipment and Support to Neurosurgeons in Ukraine

Hackensack Meridian Children’s Health neurosurgeon and program co-founder Luke Tomycz, M.D., leads more than 20 Ukraine trips

This spring, pediatric neurosurgeon Luke Tomycz, M.D., took his latest trip with the Co-Pilot Project to war-torn Ukraine to train colleagues. This time he traveled with eight other doctors including another Hackensack neurosurgeon, Robert Goodman, M.D., Ph.D., who helped a team in Uzhgorod perform DBS and epilepsy surgery.

The Hackensack Meridian Children’s Health surgeon founded the Co-Pilot Project after an exploratory mission trip to Ukraine in August 2016. On that trip, Dr. Tomycz and his colleagues observed an opportunity to help develop high-quality Ukrainian subspecialty surgical programs by providing necessary equipment and supporting young surgeons through mentorship and international fellowships.

Since the program’s founding, more than 150 American physicians have completed over 20 trips to help Ukrainian counterparts perform neurological surgeries at locations across the country. Just as a co-pilot assists in the safe execution of a flight, the project’s intention is to offer assistance and guidance so that neurosurgical colleagues in Ukraine can safely tackle complex cases.

Dr. Tomycz has collaborated on the surgical treatment of brain tumors, aneurysms and AVMs, congenital and acquired craniocervical deformities, spinal tumors and cysts, syringomyelia, tethered cord syndrome, pediatric and adult scoliosis and kyphosis and spinal trauma. Images of complex cases are sometimes shared in advance as physicians plan to visit Ukraine and perform procedures. His recent trips have focused on building centers of excellence for epilepsy surgery.

During this trip, the team of neurosurgeons included Maksim Shapiro, M.D., and Peter Kim Nelson, M.D., (NYU neuroradiology/neurosurgery), Robert Goodman, M.D., (New Jersey Brain and Spine), Jonathan Forbes, M.D., (skull base neurosurgery from University of Cincinnati), Pradeep Setty, D.O., (minimally invasive spine surgery from Beaumont Hospital in MI), Carri Muh, M.D., (chief of pediatric neurosurgery at `Westchester). Roksalana Vaksul, M.D., (anesthesiologist) also accompanied the team. They helped perform complex brain, endovascular and spine surgery in Lviv, Kyiv, Dnipro, Vinnytsia, and Ivano-Frankivske working with scores of partner physicians throughout the country. The Co-Pilot Project has been the recipient of awards from Ukrainian Neurosurgical Societies as well as the Ukranian Parliament, and participated in meetings with dignitaries in Ukraine including the mayor of Lviv and the U.S. Ambassador, Bridget Brink, in Kyiv.

The Co-Pilot Project operates under the parent nonprofit organization Razom, one the largest American-based 501c3 entities engaged in philanthropic work in Ukraine, which was co-founded in 2014 by Dr. Tomycz’s wife, Mariya Soroka.

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