CCRF launches campaign in Ukraine to reduce mortality from cardiac defects (04/20/03)

CCRF launches campaign in Ukraine to reduce mortality from cardiac defects

SHORT HILLS, N.J. - The Ukrainian Ministry of Health has reported that each year in Ukraine more than 6,000 children are born with congenital heart defects. Of these, more than 2,000 will die within the first year of life and most others will face the prospect of a substantially shortened life span coupled with long-term disability and lifelong status as "invalids." Birth defects have doubled since the Chornobyl nuclear disaster in 1986; chromosome damage has increased seven-fold among some populations exposed to radioactive fallout, and cardiac anomalies also are on the rise.

The New Jersey-based Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund has launched a major campaign to reduce the high mortality rate among Ukrainian children born with congenital heart problems through an intensive program of early, prenatal diagnosis, physician training and infusion of surgical and critical care technology. "Our goal is to reduce the mortality of these children by half within the next five years," said Dr. Zenon Matkiwsky, the co-founder and president of CCRF.

In the coming months, CCRF will be delivering new equipment to open a new cardiac surgery center in Lviv. Another cardiac surgery center recently opened in Odesa with the help of local sponsors, and CCRF is working to secure new technology for at least one more center in eastern or southern Ukraine where doctors have received extensive training and have demonstrated their proficiency in the appropriate surgical techniques.

Until this year, only the Amosov Institute of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery in Kyiv has been able to perform open-heart surgery on infants and young children. Under the direction of a brilliant young surgeon, Dr. Ilya Yemets, the pediatric surgery unit performs about 800 operations on infants and young children each year.

Born in Arkhangelsk, Siberia, where his parents had been exiled as Stalin-era political prisoners, Dr. Yemets has gained international renown after performing groundbreaking procedures on young patients, including a young girl from California two years ago. Dr. Yemets has trained in prestigious cardiac surgery centers in Paris, Toronto, Montreal and Sydney. Despite numerous offers of lucrative employment overseas, Yemets has remained in Ukraine, often working under very difficult conditions with outdated equipment.

"The Amosov Institute has done an incredible job," said Dr. Matkiwsky. "In a typical year they perform four times more cardiac operations than comparable Western children's hospitals. Clearly there is a need to create new cardiac centers in other regions of Ukraine where doctors are well-trained but lack the basic technology to perform most procedures."

With the help of a $15,000 gift from Mr. and Mrs. Lubomyr Kurylko and generous donations from CCRF's Boston and Hartford chapters, as well as other private donors, CCRF recently purchased a pediatric heart lung machine. Under the supervision of CCRF's new procurement director, Lisa Milanytch, the bypass machine and other critical supplies are scheduled to arrive in May in Lviv where a team of surgeons under the direction of Dr. Roman Kovalsky is eager to expand its capacity for open-heart surgery.

Dr. Kovalsky received extensive training in the United States under the auspices of CCRF, and received high praise for the depth of his knowledge and insight from colleagues at the Children's Hospital in Boston and Philadelphia, as well as the Deborah Heart-Lung Institute in Browns Mills, N.J.

In November of last year Dr. Kovalsky and Dr. Yemets collaborated with CCRF to organize a regional conference for surgeons and cardiologists from eight provinces in western Ukraine, whose goal was to lay the strategic framework and technical foundation for proper diagnosis of cardiac defects and for timely referrals to the new center in Lviv. More than 300 doctors and nurses from as far away as Zakarpattia, Chernivtsi and Kamianets-Podilskyi attended the CCRF-sponsored conference in Lviv.

With the help of a $25,000 grant from the Medtronic Foundation, CCRF is planning a nationwide follow-up conference to be held at a conference center in Puscha Vodytsia, on the outskirts of Kyiv, in May of this year. The fund is currently translating and publishing a series of articles and training manuals on infant cardiology and cardiac surgery that will be provided to all the conference participants at no cost.

"The doctors who attended our neonatal training conference last spring were thrilled with the comprehensive manuals on neonatal intensive care that we published with the help of Nestles and Procter & Gamble," said CCRF Country Director Olena Maslyukivska. "We're hoping that our partner hospitals will find our next publications just as useful."

With the recent appointment of a new Ukrainian minister of health, Dr. Andrij Pedaev, Ukrainian cardiac specialists have expressed hope that the government will become more sensitized to the critical need for expanded cardiac surgery programs, and will devote more financial resources to this problem. As the former health minister for Crimea, Dr. Pedaev is keenly aware of the need for new technology to combat the high rate of mortality among Ukrainian children born with cardiac anomalies.

"All the awareness and training in the world will not be enough unless Ukrainian doctors get the essential tools they need to perform these kinds of operations," said CCRF Executive Director Alexander Kuzma. "This is not a problem that can be solved with a nickel-and-dime approach or half-measures. To save these children's lives we need to invest substantial resources into the kind of equipment and infrastructure that are standard for Western pediatric centers. We are also working to persuade the Ukrainian government to make good on its promise to upgrade the Amosov Institute and to invest in these children's future."

In recent years, the Ukrainian Gift of Life and Rotary International have brought dozens of Ukrainian children to the United States for life-saving heart operations. CCRF hopes to complement these efforts by strengthening the ability of hospitals in Ukraine to treat a much larger contingent of children by enhancing their on-site capabilities - especially for children who may be too small or too feeble to travel overseas for treatment.

CCRF estimates that by the end of its second year in operation, the Lviv cardiac surgery center could provide open-heart surgeries for up to 200 children per year. As staff becomes more experienced and equipped with an additional surgical suite, the fund hopes to double the number of lives saved. If similar centers can be adequately equipped in Odesa and at least one other city, the goal of reducing mortality at least by half (1,000 lives per year) could be achieved.

"In Lviv, Dr. Kovalsky has already performed miracles with minimally intrusive thoracic and corrective surgeries to repair serious deformities in newborns," said Dr. Matkiwsky. "With the new heart-lung machine he'll be receiving, Roman's capability of saving lives should grow exponentially. We're very pleased that we will be able to keep our promise to this outstanding young surgeon and his team."

Since 1990, CCRF has launched 30 medical airlifts and 12 sea shipments, delivering over 1,300 tons of aid valued at over $50 million. In recent years CCRF has established model neonatal intensive care units that have sharply reduced the rate of infant mortality in several of its partner hospitals, most notably in Lutsk, Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk.

The fund's chapters in Boston, Hartford, Buffalo and other cities, as well as individual donors have already mounted significant efforts to support this new cardiac program. The fund is seeking new benefactors who can appreciate the vital importance of this mission. For further information, readers may call (973) 376-5140. Tax-deductible donations may be sent to: CCRF, 272 Old Short Hills Road, Short Hills, NJ 07078. Donations may be earmarked for the "Infant Cardiac Program."

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