Kyiv to Syracuse: How a web of connections by strangers brought Ukrainian cancer patient to Upstate

Ukraine War Family

Nataliia Bakal, left, escaped from Ukraine during the war with help from her daughter and son-in-law, Iryna and Frank Gunsallus. Bakal's chemotherapy treatments were interrupted by the war, and have resumed at Upstate Medical University. Scott Schild | sschild@syracuse.com Scott Schild | sschild@syracuse.com

Syracuse, N.Y. -- Three days after Nataliia Bakal had surgery near the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, Russian troops invaded the country. Bombs rained down near the hospital.

“A doctor came into the room and said, ‘If you can walk, then you should leave,’” recalled her son-in-law, Frank Gunsallus, who lives in Maryland.

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