CCRDF delivers advanced medical equipment to Chernivtsi (06/18/06)

CCRDF delivers advanced medical equipment to Chernivtsi

CHERNIVTSI, Ukraine - The Ukrainian Mobile Communications Company (UMC) held a press conference on May 23 at Chernivtsi Maternity Hospital No. 2 to celebrate the arrival of advanced medical technology that can help to save the lives of children and to provide effective treatment for mothers with pregnancy complications and difficult deliveries.

The new equipment was purchased and installed by the Children of Chornobyl Relief and Development Fund (CCRDF), an award-winning charity based in Kyiv and Short Hills, N.J., that has delivered over $55 million worth of medical technology and humanitarian aid to Ukraine since it was first established in 1989.

The new technology included an advanced Fukuda-Denshi ultrasound scanner with color Doppler (UF-750XT) manufactured in Japan, complete with a variety of diagnostic probes for the examination of both mothers and children. The ultrasound will enable obstetricians and neonatal specialists in Chernivtsi to examine the internal organs of adults and infants, including the heart, thyroid gland, abdomen, reproductive and urinary tracts.

CCRDF also purchased a fetal heart monitor manufactured by the Huntleigh Corp. in Great Britain, a neonatal incubator produced by Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and an Optica Hopkins hysteroscope, which enables doctors to carry out minimally invasive operations.

Speaking on behalf of his medical staff, the hospital director, Dr. Albert Kuritsyn, expressed his thanks to UMC and CCRDF for their generous donation of high-quality equipment. "We expect that this new technology, which is the first of its kind in Chernivtsi, will enable our team to significantly reduce the level of infant mortality in this city," said Dr. Kuritsyn.

Located in the southwestern corner of Ukraine in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, the historic and picturesque Chernivtsi region has been afflicted with a number of environmental hazards. In the late 1980s a large number of children in the region suffered from hair loss and other unexplained maladies. Although these were never conclusively linked to any particular source of pollution, concern for the health of local children has remained heightened, especially in light of the region's high infant mortality rate and the lack of funding for medical improvements in the local municipal budget.

The city's re-elected mayor, Mykola Trokhymovych Fedoruk, recently visited Chernivtsi Maternity Hospital No. 2 and came away so impressed with the new equipment installed by CCRDF that he pledged 500,000 hrv (about $100,000) to supplement the UMC gift with additional priority medical technology.

At the May 23 press conference, the city's health director, Dr. Valentyna Tarasiuk, re-affirmed the mayor's commitment and called on other businesspersons to lend their support to UMC's joint campaign with CCRDF to save the lives of Chernivtsi's children.

Representing UMC was Western Ukrainian Regional Director Lyudmyla Vorko, who expressed her company's deep satisfaction with the achievements of this charitable initiative. "We are proud to be part of a program that can bring so much good to so many people." The UMC grant to CCRDF was made possible by last summer's telethon when UMC customers raised over $133,000 in small contributions to support CCRDF. UMC then matched this amount and added an additional $150,000 to expand the medical program to include children's hospitals in Kherson and Uzhhorod.

Following the press conference, Dr. Kuritsyn and his staff escorted journalists and UMC representatives to several areas of the hospital where medical technology installed by CCRDF is currently in operation. In addition to the equipment financed by UMC, Dr. Kuritsyn also showed the state-of-the-art neonatal station funded by the family of the late Martha Andriuk and Col. Basil Andriuk of Darien, Conn.

Mrs. Andriuk served as the vice-president of CCRDF from 1990 until her untimely death in 2003. In honor of her late husband, a native of the Bukovyna-Chernivtsi region, Mrs. Andriuk and her sons, Alexander, Andrew and Mark Andriuk of Norwalk, Conn., funded the neonatal station to launch the fund's partnership with the maternity hospital.

CCRDF is also working to improve conditions at Chernivtsi City Children's Hospital with the financial support of the fund's Central Maine Chapter under the direction of Dr. Bohdan Slabyj.

"We are very pleased with the strides that have been made in Chernivtsi with the support of UMC," said CCRDF Executive Director Alexander Kuzma. "We will be working with the medical staff to assess the positive impact of this aid, and to ensure that as many patients as possible can fully benefit from this technology."

To support CCRDF's programs in Chernivtsi or other cities, tax-deductible donations may be forwarded to: CCRDF, 272 Old Short Hills Road, Short Hills, NJ 07078.

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