CCRF continues relief work, with a focus on education (05/05/02)

CCRF continues relief work, with a focus on education

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Another airlift organized by the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund from the United States touched down at Kyiv's Boryspil Airport on April 19, a week before the 16th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear accident.

This latest delivery, which consisted of 11 tons of U.S. medicines, hospital supplies and medical equipment valued at $620,000 and arranged by CCRF through its extensive contacts with U.S. hospitals, pharmaceutical firms and the medical community, was the 30th time the charitable organization has brought U.S. aid to Ukraine.

In all CCRF has delivered more than 1,300 tons of medical aid valued at more than $49 million, which makes it the largest donor organization from the Ukrainian diaspora, by far.

The airlifts have become routine, but the work the organization continues to do is far from banal. The fact remains that approximately 2 million children suffer from Chornobyl-linked health problems, such as cancer, leukemia and immune deficiencies. Since the environmental disaster occurred in April 1986, incidents of thyroid cancer, which was almost non-existent in this region until then, have increased substantially.

CCRF has changed its direction somewhat over the course of its 12-year existence, but it has not changed its focus. Today, while still including direct material aid to hospitals and medical centers throughout Ukraine, CCRF is increasingly beginning to embrace an educational effort as well.

Also, whereas earlier the organization's efforts were aimed at improving the state of oncology and hematology in the country - and while CCRF still considers these vital areas of medicine that need to be improved in Ukraine - the accent today is on neonatal health care.

"Our focus remains to save lives, to help better the medical system and to Westernize it," explained Nadia Matkiwsky, CCRF's executive director. "We realized that it was too expensive and difficult to change the areas of oncology and hematology. However, neonatology is different in that new equipment and medicines can make quite a difference in saving lives and raising healthy citizens."

The CCRF executive director explained that purchasing neonatal equipment packs more punch per dollar expended in its effectiveness than the equipment needed to foster effective medical care in other fields.

"For $120,000 we can put two full neonatal intensive care stations in a hospital and know that two infants will be saved," explained Mrs. Matkiwsky.

Mrs. Matkiwsky said infant mortality is on the rise in Ukraine and the medical health of the country's newborns is worsening for a variety of reasons - not the least of which is that Ukrainian women do not take proper care of themselves. She noted government statistics of the Institute of Pediatrics, which claim that 96 percent of all births in Ukraine come with complications. A Ministry of Statistics figure puts that number at 75 percent.

The executive director explained that Ukrainian women need to realize they must prepare themselves for pregnancy, because a healthy baby doesn't simply happen.

"As a woman dealing with this, perhaps my biggest disappointment is that the women of Ukraine in general do not take care of their bodies," said Mrs. Matkiwsky.

As part of its new commitment to educating doctors and civilians alike, CCRF organized an educational conference for medical workers on the subject of neonatology, with the spotlight on respiratory care, which took place in conjunction with the latest airlift. It was held on April 24-25 at a sanitarium outside Kyiv under the auspices of Ukraine's Ministry of Health and the Association of Neonatologists of Ukraine.

Dr. Ihor Bilyk, a specialist in neonatal medicine, and Rennell Leichty, a neonatal intensive care nurse, both of whom hail from Fort Wayne, Ind., led the conference for some 200 Ukrainian medical workers.

In an interview with The Weekly, Dr. Bilyk said the doctors in attendance expressed a thirst for information on new techniques and technologies in the West.

"The doctors want to advance neonatology and raise the level of medical care in Ukraine, but they have many obstacles to overcome, truthfully, obstacles from the government. They do not get any support," explained Dr. Bilyk.

He said that, ironically, he believes there is sufficient financing in the government sector to raise the level of medical care in the country, but offered his opinion that it was being inefficiently meted out.

The Fort Worth doctor, who is also a professor of pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine, acknowledged that Ukrainian doctors must also stop accepting compromises in the medical care they extend and begin demanding the latest techniques and best technology.

While the U.S. specialist underscored that the Ukrainian doctors need both the information and the technology, he noted that too often they were ready to accept less effective alternatives. He said many of them wanted to know what could be done to effect a desired result when the proper equipment was unavailable.

"The answer was that it couldn't be replaced," explained Dr. Bilyk. "It would be sub-optimal. You just can't do it."

He noted that, of course, long-in-use, globally accepted methods continue to be practiced in Ukraine, but told the doctors that using them in new ways would not lower mortality or morbidity rates without new equipment.

He emphasized, however, that adopting new techniques could help to alleviate some of the problems facing Ukrainian doctors in lieu of advanced technology.

Dr. Bilyk explained that the education process he would like implemented is a three-step affair. First would come the theoretical lectures and seminars, followed by presentations of case studies and finally bedside education.

Mrs. Matkiwsky noted that the last step will present a simple, but unique logistics problem in that neonatal centers in Ukraine are tiny places, usually rooms consisting of four or five beds, which would make it difficult to find space for a teaching doctor and students to do hands-on training.

But Mrs. Matkiwsky is undeterred by such problems and, major and minor, others that confront her in her work. Ever optimistic, she explained that CCRF would overcome all the obstacles put before it in its latest endeavor.

"We need to increase the accent on preventive medicine. We need to educate, educate!" said Mrs. Matkiwsky, determination steeling her voice.

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