WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Last week I saw Dr. Henry Marsh, a neurosurgeon, who participated in a documentary screening at the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, D.C. The documentary The English Surgeon shows Dr. Marsh’s voluntary in Ukraine.

You can find more, and even buy filmmaker Geoffrey Smith’s documentary DVD, at http://www.theenglishsurgeon.com.

There was no script prepared for this movie. The film is spontaneous and was not staged. While lack of early diagnostics of tumors and highly qualified professionals are talked about in Ukrainian society, Henry Marsh, is doing what he can do. He is changing the world around him and he is not giving up. He battles Ukrainian real-life conditions and the painful dilemmas of the doctor-patient relationship. The story sounds unique for the Western modern health care when a famous neurosurgeon from London uses usual Bosch do-it-yourself power drill and vice for a brain surgery in Kyiv.

We see real-life dilemmas, including a grandmother being told that her grandson will die. Another situation is of a 23-year-old Ukrainian beauty whose MRI is a death sentence, and two doctors, making a decision in front of us about what to tell the patient. They had never seen her before. She came for a consultation and it happened to be in front of a video camera. Marsh and his Ukrainian colleague, Ihor Kurilets, discuss what to do and ask the girl to bring her mother from Moscow. Although she looks young and healthy, even state-of-the-art Western health care would not be able to change the verdict - becoming blind and dying within a few years.

Marsh and Kurilets serve patients who are misdiagnosed and refused treatment by Ukrainian health care professionals unable to treat them. The patients are low-income Ukrainians from villages who cannot afford state hospitals. Marsh brings surplus, donated medical equipment from the United Kingdom.

In the movie we see the story of a western Ukrainian young man named Marian, who is missing teeth and who suffers epilepsia because of a tumor that state health care professionals cannot treat. We follow him in the village church where donations are gathered. We see the operation during which the patient is aware of the drilling of his scalp is being done by a usual drill Bosch which was bought in a usual Ukrainian bazaar. We follow the doctors in the bazaar, shopping for different small screws and other details which they are going to use in surgeries.

Dr. Marsh’s first profession was political studies and he specialized in the Soviet Union. After many years, he brought his knowledge and experience in neurosurgery to Ukraine. The Marsh-Kurilets cooperation started 17 years ago when Marsh, visiting an emergency room in Kyiv suddenly met Kurilets, a doctor, speaking English, which he learned using BBC programs. The emergency room “reeked of ammonia - the only disinfectant available at the time - and much of the building was in darkness,” recollects Dr. Marsh.

The documentary sends many powerful messages. We see two doctors who are making a difference. They were pushed out by a corrupt Ukrainian state health care system full of rivalry and envy. They opened a private clinic. They drill heads located in a usual vice by a Bosch fix-it-yourself tool and save lives. The lack of medicine and a high-skilled staff does not allow them to do operations with full sedation, in many cases.

Filmmaker Smith’s documentary is full of symbols. We see the monument of the victory in the World War II, which reminds us that poor people in front of us are the descendants of those who won that war. We follow Dr. Marsh, who is still riding a bike, in this world full of high tech and a sunflower near his computer. Two worlds are together all the time. The country, which was the first in space, sacrificed everything, including the health of their citizens.

This film is a string of thoughts that combines different medical cases and scenes from real-life Ukraine. One of them is a disorganized waiting room, a typical waiting room in which patients are quarrelling about who should go next. Dr. Kurilets is always trying to create order there, but fails. Ukraine lives in this way. All are suffering and, while some will recover or escape, others will die. Everybody is waiting for somebody else to organize the process. The doctor is trying to persuade patients to select the leader, but they are depressed and do not have the energy for this. At the same time, they have enough energy to push each other away.

Marian’s scalp is open during the surgery. He is speaking and is full of optimism and hope, even as doctors are removing the tumor from his brain. He survived the surgery. He is alive. This is the bottom line. While he is alive and awake, while there are heroes and volunteers in Ukraine, helping him, his life is still in his hands. We all have a chance.