Status: 03/17/2022 07:28 a.m
The Lviv Children’s Hospital in western Ukraine still has the situation under control. Serious cases are forwarded to neighboring EU countries. The director warns that there will soon be problems with medication.
Katja bends over the cot. She lovingly strokes the head of Sophia, her sleeping daughter. ECG electrodes are attached to Sophia’s chest. A blood pressure cuff encloses one of her thin arms. An intubation tube goes through your mouth into your windpipe. Sophia is so small that she seems to disappear even in the cot. Just like Diana, her twin sister, who is in bed across from her.
Her 39-year-old mother Katja says that Sophia and Diana were born prematurely in Kyiv last September – eleven weeks before the expected date. And they had lung problems from the start, which is why they were in long-term inpatient treatment after the birth. That went well, says Katja. Then Russia began bombing Kyiv.
From Kyiv to Lviv
Again and again the three had to go into the shelter when there was an air raid. A few days ago, the medical team in Kyiv made sure that Katja and her daughters were able to leave the city. Together with other patients, they traveled to Lviv in western Ukraine in a special train equipped with medical equipment. In safety. Here Sophia and Diana immediately came to the mother-child hospital. Because the time spent in the shelter during the bombardment harmed them, says Dr. Vira Primakowa, her doctor in Lviv, especially her stay right at the beginning of the war.
“When the bombings started, they were moved to a basement. They were down there for four days. The babies contracted a viral infection. Diana’s lung tissue isn’t soft anyway, it’s rigid. Any abnormality, particularly viruses, cough, runny nose, aggravates hers condition,” describes the doctor.
Within the first six hours of being here, Diana was put on an artificial respirator. Sofia shortly thereafter. Since then, both have been artificially ventilated. Her condition is really difficult.
Quiet situation in the hospital
Apart from the constant beeping of the monitors showing pulse and heartbeat, the hospital is quiet. It doesn’t seem overloaded. An impression of the director Dr. Bohdan Malovanyj, himself a surgeon, confirmed. They work more intensively “because Ukrainian refugees come from active war zones with children who need help.” He reports on 53 refugee children in inpatient treatment. In addition, there are around 30 to 40 patients a day to receive outpatient help.
These are the children who have just reached Lviv by train or car and who need some help because of their often long journey, and we offer it to them.
The UN recently sounded the alarm: It was said that the Lviv Children’s Hospital, the regional children’s hospital in western Ukraine, was overwhelmed by the large number of injured children arriving from the embattled regions. The hospital is so overloaded that the medical profession is handing out colored stickers: red and black, for example. Red means that the treating person must take care of the child immediately; black means the child is still alive, but rescue is too late.
Problem with drugs will come
director dr Bohdan Malovanyj, on the other hand, explains briefly and concisely: There is no such prioritization procedure in Lviv – not even in the children’s cancer clinic. If serious cases arrive there, they are immediately forwarded to one of the neighboring EU countries. The children’s hospital director Malovanyj also relies on them – among other things. At least when it comes to the supply of medicines:
So far, there are enough medicines to meet the need. But there will soon be a problem with drugs manufactured (in the embattled cities) of Kyiv and Kharkiv.
These are the ones that are used in trauma treatment, in orthopedics or in operations. “But thanks to the humanitarian aid from our friends in the EU, Canada, the US and Israel, our needs are being met.”
No-fly zone can help
What the doctor is missing is actually only one thing: a no-fly zone over Ukraine: “Because every time there is an air raid alarm, and it comes two, three, four times a day, we have to bring all the children here to the shelter. It “It’s very difficult. The responsible politicians could help by setting up a no-fly zone. So that we can at least work normally here in the hospitals.”
Katja, the mother of Sophia and Diana, also wants a no-fly zone. The dark-haired woman is now tenderly stroking Diana’s head:
I also wish that heaven would be closed. Although, thank God, there are no shots or explosions like in Kyiv. But when I see how the small children are taken (to the shelter) every time there is an alarm…
She doesn’t want other children to get complications because they have to flee to the basement. However, NATO has repeatedly stated that it will not establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
Children’s hospitals in western Ukraine
Björn Blaschke, ARD Cairo, currently Lviv, March 17, 2022 7:28 a.m