Neonatal specialists complete training at Saint Barnabas Medical Center

LIVINGSTON, N.J. - A team of three neonatal specialists from Dnipropetrovsk Children's Hospital No. 3 recently completed an intensive training program here at the Saint Barnabas Medical Center. Sponsored by the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund (CCRF), the training program was financed by a grant from the Monsanto Co. and is part of a broad initiative designed to help reduce the high rate of infant mortality in Ukraine.

The team from Dnipropetrovsk included Dr. Alexander Buyalsky, director of the neonatal intensive care, his deputy director, Dr. Maria Fedutik and Olya Mykolayenko, chief nurse. The Ukrainian team received training from some of the leading specialists in neonatology and obstetrics in the United States, including personal supervision by Dr. Shyan Sun, chairman of the Department of Neonatology at Saint Barnabas. Dr. Sun remarked that he and his staff "have come to appreciate the scope and seriousness of the health crisis affecting Ukraine..." and stated that his neonatology team was impressed with the "talent and diligence" of the trainees from Dnipropetrovsk.

As part of their training, the visiting doctors deepened their understanding of the applications of the equipment their hospital received as part of CCRF's airlift in March that included respirators, incubators, heart monitors, pulse oximeters and special photo therapy lights.

Medical training is a key component of the Women's and Children's Health Initiative launched in 1996 by CCRF and Monsanto. By exposing physicians and nurses to the latest advances in neonatal intensive care, CCRF hopes to increase infant survival rates in Ukraine, and to prevent complications through improved prenatal care, fetal monitoring and delivery procedures.

The Dnipropetrovsk hospital was selected for a training partnership because of its track record as one of the most progressive centers for infant care in central Ukraine. Dr. Buyalsky and his staff have received recognition for their innovative treatments of newborns with very difficult pathologies.

In addition to direct training, the trainees also had an opportunity to meet with many leaders in the field of women's and children's health, to explore new strategies to combat infant mortality that have been used successfully in impoverished rural communities in the United States. They met with the Association of Women's Health, Obstetrics and Neonatal Nurses in Washington, with the Jacobs Institute on Women's Health and with Prof. Murray Feshbach of Georgetown University, author of "Ecocide in the USSR" and an expert on the demographic trends that plague Ukraine.

The Dnipropetrovsk team also met with the Hartford Chapter of CCRF and with the Consistory of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A., to thank members of the Ukrainian-American community who had been especially supportive of their medical mission.

CCRF plans to bring new teams of medical specialists from Vinnytsia, Luhansk and other regions of Ukraine to the U.S. for more advanced training and plans to hold a major training conference and strategic planning session on infant survival this fall in Dnipropetrovsk.

To support the Physicians' Training Program sponsored by CCRF, a tax-deductible donation to: The Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund, 272 Old Short Hills Road, Short Hills, NJ 07078, or call (201) 376-5140 for more information.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, June 22, 1997, No. 25, Vol. LXV

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