Volyn hospital reports decrease in infant mortality (11/28/99)

Volyn hospital reports decrease in infant mortality

LUTSK, Ukraine - The Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund has received a highly encouraging report from its partner hospital in Volyn indicating a notable decrease in infant mortality over the past four years.

In a report issued in September, the Volyn Regional (Oblast) Children's Medical Center compared the mortality rate for children undergoing treatment for birth defects, premature births and other complications between 1995 and 1999.

According to Dr. Mykola Hnativ, one of the leading specialists in neonatal resuscitation at the Volyn center, the number of children undergoing treatment in the center's intensive care unit has increased slightly from 188 patients in 1995 to 198 in 1998, and is expected to rise to over 200 at the current pace for 1999.

However, mortality has fallen off sharply from 51 deaths in 1995 to only 11 in the first six months of this year. "This represents a more than 50 percent decrease in the number of infant deaths in our facility, from 27 percent four years ago to under 12 percent this year," said Dr. Hnativ. "These are very encouraging indicators."

Dr. Hnativ and his colleagues at the center have attributed much of this improvement to new technology and training provided by the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund that has delivered more than $500,000 worth of intensive care equipment to the facility, beginning in November 1997. Among the items delivered by the CCRF, perhaps the most valuable were a fully equipped ambulance complete with transport incubator and respirator and critical care monitor - all of which enabled the doctors in Lutsk to reach newborns in some of the most remote villages in this rural province and to transport them safely to Volyn's central critical care facility.

"In one year, we have doubled the number of children we are bringing from remote maternity clinics," Dr. Hnativ explained. "Many of these were suffering from very serious, life-threatening conditions and would not have survived without emergency surgery and the other resources we now have available."

Thanks to the initiative of Prof. Volodymyr and Oksana Bakum of Highland, N.Y., and a very generous gift from the Matushevsky/Bakum families, the CCRF was able to leverage and install five complete neonatal stations at the Volyn pediatric center. The new work stations are also equipped with infant warmers and pulse oximeters that can assist doctors and nurses in monitoring and stabilizing infants' conditions. Prior to these installments, doctors in Lutsk were often forced into the heartbreaking predicament of choosing which one of four or five critically ill newborns could receive treatment using the only incubator or respirator available, and which had the best chance of surviving with makeshift resuscitation techniques.

The CCRF's experience in Lutsk follows similar successes it has achieved at its partner hospitals in Dnipropetrovsk and Lviv with the help of grants from Monsanto and the John Deere Co. The success of the Volyn neonatal team convinced CCRF medical advisers to stage a national training conference at the center in Lutsk on October 18-20. Co-hosted by the CCRF, Ukraine's Ministry of Health and the Volyn Pediatric Center, the conference featured presentations by Ukrainian specialists, technical advisers from medical manufacturers Siemens and Fisher & Paykel, and two neonatal experts from the Beth Israel Medical Center and the St. Barnabas Medical System in New Jersey.

"It is our hope that the success in Lutsk can he replicated in other pediatric centers and maternity hospitals across Ukraine," said Alex Kuzma, director of development for the U.S.-based relief fund. The CCRF is expanding its efforts to include needy pediatric centers in Poltava, Chernihiv and Ivano-Frankivsk. In addition to its medical relief program, the CCRF has also published a groundbreaking handbook on the "Fundamentals of Neonatology," the first book of its kind published in the Ukrainian language. Each participant at the October conference received a complimentary copy of the volume.

To support the CCRF's Infant Survival Initiative, supporters are urged to send their tax-deductible contributions to: CCRF, 272 Old Short Hills Road, Short Hills, NJ 07078.

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