CCRDF's Kharkiv initiative helps city's hospital for children (02/12/06)

CCRDF's Kharkiv initiative helps city's hospital for children

KHARKIV - Nurse Irina Slobodyniuk will never forget her first day on the job in the hematology ward of the Kharkiv City Children's Hospital No. 16. "I just began my shift when a child died on my floor. There was more commotion in an adjoining room and a second child passed away. On the floor below, we lost a third. Three children in the span of one hour," she recalled.

It was a horrific start for an aspiring young nurse who wanted to save the lives of children suffering from leukemia.

That was 16 years ago, and Nurse Slobodyniuk has not lost any of her zeal for combating this dreaded illness. Since 1989, Kharkiv City Children's Hospital No. 16 has made dramatic improvements in its treatment and diagnosis of children with leukemia, Hodgkins lymphoma and aplastic anemia.

Thanks to an infusion of technology from Western aid groups and major grants from Philip Morris, the survival rates for children's leukemia at this hospital have risen steadily from a dismal 5 percent in 1992 to over 70 percent in 2005. The hospital staff is working hard to reach Western remission levels of 85 percent.

"We used to have absolutely nothing to work with," said Dr. Lyudmyla Rakovska, the assistant to the medical director in Kharkiv. "Now we have a Cobe Spectra hematology analyzer and blood cell separator that enable us to reduce by half the number of hemorrhages, infections, thrombocites, myeloid depression and other complications during chemotherapy."

In 2005 the Philip Morris Co. awarded the Children of Chornobyl Relief and Development Fund a $150,000 grant to further strengthen the diagnostic capacity of this hospital and especially its hematology ward. This was the fourth grant Philip Morris awarded for the Kharkiv hospital.

CCRDF used these funds to modernize the hematology laboratory with six new microscopes, diagnostic kits, reagents, a spectrophotometer, testing kits, a Roche biochemistry analyzer and many additional supplies that no leukemia treatment center should be without. The fund also procured a centrifuge, an adjustable micro-dose calculator with eight channels, aqua-distiller and other critical components.

On November 9, 2005, CCRDF Executive Director Alex Kuzma and CCRDF's Kyiv project administrator Evhenia Medvedenko met with hospital staff in Kharkiv to plan the next steps in this new partnership. Besides visiting the hematology laboratory, CCRDF monitors met with some of the children who are benefiting directly from this new technology.

Among the most poignant encounters was a little girl named Karina Izotova who at age 2 has endured two major operations and is on her second round of chemotherapy. "This kid is a fighter," said her treating physician, Dr. Lydia Bilousova. "We've never seen a child this small fight this hard for her life. She wants to live."

CCRDF representatives were impressed with the strong rapport between doctors and children, the patients' remarkably cheerful demeanor, even as they had to undergo what had to be very difficult and sometimes painful treatment.

Despite the progress they've made, the doctors at the Kharkiv hosptial face enormous challenges in the months ahead. They noted a sharp increase in the number of new leukemia cases which rose by one-third just in the past year. The hospital is in dire need of a new roentgen machine as their 30-year-old Romanian-built model is on its last legs, and each year the demand for services is increasing. (The number of patients in need has risen steadily from 1,307 in 2003 to 1,406 in 2004 and to 1,753 in just the first 10 months of this year.) CCRDF hopes to negotiate a large discount on a new unit in the coming year.

As expensive and challenging as it can be to combat leukemia, the effort is well worth it. As CCRDF representatives toured the hospital late into the evening shift, they met a strapping teenager named Ruslan Lomaka who has been in long-term remission, but returns to the hospital for periodic check-ups to avoid any relapse in his disease.

For more information on CCRDF's Kharkiv initiative, or to support the fund's charitable mission, readers may call (973) 376-5140 or write to: Children of Chornobyl Relief and Development Fund, 272 Old Short Hills Road, Short Hills, NJ 07078.

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