How far would you go to access the medical care your child needed to live a normal life? Would you enter a warzone? Would you allow your daughter to undergo brain surgery in a city under threat from air strikes?

The answer to all these questions from the Gribben family of Northern Ireland was yes, since at the St. Nicholas Children's Hospital in L'viv, Ukraine, 4-year-old Rachel had the chance to be cured of severe epileptic seizures that were causing developmental delays.

Since Russia's invasion and occupation of eastern Ukraine in February of 2022, L'viv, a cosmopolitan city close to the Polish border in the far west of the country, has largely gone unmolested.

Still, attacks on Ukrainian electrical infrastructure have intensified in the last 6 months, and missiles can also go off course.

Renowned American neurosurgeon Dr. Luke Tomich was in L'viv advising the neurosurgeons at St. Nicholas. His expertise in the surgery that young Rachel required meant that for the N. Irish family, a 1,800-mile journey awaited them.

Diagnosed with epilepsy and epileptic spasms when she was 18 months old, Rachel's neurosurgeon Dr. Mykhailo Lovga and his team removed a small section of brain tissue that was the root of the problem, and which she should be able to function without.

"We carefully opened the skull, found the abnormal tissue, and slowly separated it before removing it completely. Because this tissue was close to the area that controls movement, we worked with neurologists and used very advanced technology during the surgery," Dr. Lovga told United 24 Media, a Ukrainian news agency.

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