BRAMA, March 20, 2003, 1:00 am ET
Press Release
Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund launches campaign in Ukraine to reduce mortality from cardiac defects
(Short Hills, NJ) 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 prospects 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 are
also on the rise.
Dr. Ilya Yemets
|
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, and recently retired Chief of Surgery at Union Hospital, part of the Saint
Barnabas Medical System in New Jersey.
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 Odessa, 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 Arkhagelsk, Siberia where his
parents had been exiled as Stalin-era political prisoners, Dr. Yemets has gained international
renown after performing ground-breaking procedures on young patients, including a young girl
from California two years ago. Yemets has trained in prestigious cardiac surgery centers in Paris,
Toronto, Montreal, and Sydney, Australia. 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."
Dr. Ilya Yemets lectured to an audience of more than 300 pediatric, cardiac and intensive care
specialists at the Western Ukrainian Regional Infant Cardiac Surgery Conference last fall in
Lviv. In May 2003, the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund is sponsoring a nationwide conference in
Kyiv to develop new, comprehensive strategies and to teach new diagnostic and surgical
techniques for combating the high rate of mortality among young children with cardiac defects.
|
With the help of a $15,000 gift from Mr. 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 Lviv in
May 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, NJ.
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, 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 Transcarpathia, Chernivtsi and Kamianets-Podilsk attended the CCRF-sponsored
conference in Lviv. With the help of a $25,000 grant from the Medtronic Foundation, CCRF is
planning a nationwide followup conference to be held at a conference center in Pushcha
Vodytsia, on the outskirts of in 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
Nestle's 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 are hopeful 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
compliment 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 Odessa 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 $49 million dollars. 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 have already mounted significant efforts to
support its new cardiac program. The Fund is seeking new benefactors who can appreciate the
vital importance of this mission. For further information, please call (973) 376-5140. Tax
deductible donations may be sent to CCRF, 272 Old Short Hills Road, Short Hills, New Jersey
07078. Your donations may be earmarked for the "Infant Cardiac Program".
|
![[BRAMA Client Websites]](http://www.brama.com/banners/miniads7.gif){kind=small}
Foto I
