Traumatologist and orthopedist Mārtiņš Malzubris and microsurgeon Mārtiņš Kapickis have been treating Ukrainian soldiers within the budget of Latvia's comprehensive state health care system.
When Latvian Radio spoke with doctors, Malzubris stated: "We are currently in ward four, which is the septic reconstructive surgery ward. We have reserved three wards for Ukrainian patients."
Mārtiņš Malzubris, head of the ward at the Traumatology and Orthopedics Hospital, said that they have agreed with the hospital management that six Ukrainian soldiers can be treated here at the same time, so that the work can proceed rhythmically and not interfere with the treatment of local people. These three wards are in isolation mode, as many patients have multi-resistant infections.
"We don't go in with long sleeves. The nurse, for example, has bare hands, no rings, no watches. Everything can be disinfected. No big beauty treatments, gel nails are not allowed. All protective equipment must be monitored in each ward. This is to prevent the transfer of microorganisms from one patient to another, because if they come from another hospital, for example, they have a multi-resistant infection," explained Malzubris.
He has maintained professional contacts with Ukrainian doctors for more than a decade, but became more deeply involved in 2022, when Russian troops began their full-scale invasion of Ukraine. "Yes, we took a huge risk, we went in, we even went straight to Kyiv. There was a threat of siege there for two weeks," Malzubris said.
Since then, Malzubris has been on about 20 medical missions to Ukraine, treating patients, almost exclusively soldiers, and training local doctors during the treatment - sharing technology and training techniques. Back home his work has been appreciated, too; in Latvia he received the Order of the Three Stars.
"In the last two or three years, there have been mainly injuries caused by explosions. Very, very rarely do any bullet injuries occur, currently they are clearly explosions, mostly from drones. Now and then there are also mines. Considering that the front is shifting, Ukraine is counter-attacking, retaking some territory, then there are clearly many more injuries caused by mines," said Malzubris.
When he started his career in medicine, Malzubris wasn't particularly interested in reconstructive surgery. He wanted to learn some aspects, but in the end, he found himself right in the middle of this discipline.
"A good reconstructive surgeon is always looking for a challenge, he basically says to himself: 'Give me the craziest clinical case you can get, and I'll try to solve it.' Well, it's like a Sudoku expert, maybe. If a beginner is happy to get to the end, then the expert says 'Give me the hardest Sudoku you have.' And the same goes for reconstructive surgery. And, of course, military injuries are the most difficult cases imaginable," Malzubris said.
The most common injuries to Ukrainian soldiers are large open wounds to the thigh, lower leg, upper arm, and forearm – blast injuries. According to Malzubris, the most challenging clinical cases are hand reconstructions. Injuries to the legs are very different.
"If the leg has very, very massive damage that is incompatible with preserving the leg in the foreseeable future, then in order to get the patient back on their feet faster – as you might say – it is wiser to amputate the leg and make an external prosthesis. In such a successful situation, the patient walks with a prosthesis after one and a half to two months after the amputation. On the other hand, one should try to preserve a hand no matter what the cost, because any poorly functioning hand will be better than a prosthesis," said Malzubris.
The longest operation so far took 16 hours, due to complications. While patients from Ukraine usually arrive in Latvia two to three months after their injury, Malzubris has already begun treating several patients in Ukraine.
Malzubris tells a case that he is particularly pleased with: "A gentleman whom we were treating in the summer of 2022 at the central military hospital. I saw him, he had an open fracture, damage and a very, very crushed arm. He was exhausted, very weak, you could say, lying, curled up in a cot. It seemed that he would hardly survive, but we carried out the reconstruction slowly, step by step, and the finale is that after two minor additional operations in Latvia, he is currently working for a company that deals with agricultural machinery. He is a blooming young man, whose [injury] is practically invisible if you cover his arm, which is badly damaged. He has a family, two daughters."
Injured from Ukraine are being treated at Latvian Microsurgery Centre
The other hero of this story is microsurgeon Mārtiņš Kapickis from the Latvian Microsurgery Centre. A total of about 220 patients from Ukraine have been treated there – mostly soldiers and some civilians who came here as refugees.
"Those cases are terrible; even if you're not on the battlefield, seeing it all leaves some kind of mark," admitted Kapickis.
When asked if he had dealt with anything similar in Latvia before, Kapickis pointed out: "As microsurgeons, we were probably the only ones in the country who had treated war-like injuries until now, and these are all firecrackers, agricultural injuries, explosions, facial injuries, industrial, they all came to us. They are, of course, similar, not the same, but psycho-emotionally in terms of experience, in terms of practice. That is why we were so actively involved in Jana Streļeca's project in 2014, that we can help."
The aforementioned Jana Streļeca founded the "Support Fund for Victims of the Ukrainian Conflict", and organized the transportation of wounded soldiers to Latvia for four years from 2014.
"Then, through this foundation, the first patients were brought to Latvia, and Jana Streļeca took great care of those guys as if they were her own children," said Kapickis.
At first, according to Streļeca, the idea was to rehabilitate the wounded soldiers, but then it turned out that they all needed the help of microsurgeons or traumatologists. Streļeca especially highlights the selfless work of the Microsurgery Center, which is a private company, and Kapickas as its director at the time, who did not charge fees for their expertise.
Since 2022, wounded Ukrainian soldiers have been transported to Riga East Hospital by buses from Ukraine. Some of these patients are treated by microsurgeons specializing in nerve damage.
Kapickis said: "We specialize in this, nerve damage, peripheral, all brachial plexus damage, well, arm paralysis, in layman's terms you could say. You get shot in the neck and your arm is paralyzed, or something like that. And that's what we're trying to clean up."
Why does Ukraine need the help of Latvian microsurgeons? Kapickis pointed out that Ukraine does a great deal itself, but there are an extremely large number of these patients.
Kapickis has treated both conscripts and volunteers, and he has observed that the latter have a very strong motivation to return to the battlefield. "I will say this without pathos, it is their love of their homeland. They want to win that war," said Kapickis.
He emphasized that doctors can let patients go back when everything is done.
"I would say that 80% of them... it's hard for me to imagine how they can function on the battlefield - with everything we've done. I have one colonel with whom we, you could say, developed more of a friendship. He had a badly damaged arm, and he can't be here because he has to be back at the front. He comes back every time, does some sessions, rehabilitates quickly, then he has to be back at the front. Thank God, he's coming back."
Kapickis explained that while war is a dark thing, medicine always learns something from it.
"Because it would be terrible if there was only the dark side and we learned nothing. There are operations that we have performed because they are desperate operations that we would not otherwise perform. And these desperate operations bring results to some extent. It makes us think and understand what we can do in other situations that are not desperate operations. Some new techniques that we learn. That is the reality. With these war injuries, we become better surgeons," said Kapickis.
Source: A European Perspective, LSM
Originally published by Laura Dzērve on 24 February 2026 10:10 GMT+1