They will not survive without drugs and specialist medical care — the doctors say directly. The situation of sick children in Ukraine is getting more and more dramatic. Journalists from Reuters visited a bunker in the basement of a children’s hospital in Kiev, where makeshift bedding for little patients and their parents was organized.

  1. The effects of Our Country’s invasion of Ukraine do not bypass the weakest and the most vulnerable. Before the bombing, they have to hide e.g. little patients of the children’s hospital in Kiev
  2. Children with cancer are the worst offenders, and discontinuation of therapy may result in relapses rather than the expected remission of the cancer.
  3. The solution is to transport the most seriously ill children to other hospitals, but it usually means a long and dangerous journey
  4. “If it doesn’t stop, our patients will die” — leaves no illusions Dr. Łesia Łysycia from Ohmattdyt
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  6. More information can be found on the TvoiLokony home page

A dingy basement, thin mattresses tossed on a concrete floor, a few fold-out armchairs. This is where the life of the Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kiev goes on. The little patients are cared for by staff here and relatively safe, but that could change soon. Medicines are scarce and equipment is unavailable, and the hospital needs food for babies. But the worst part is that cancer patients had to stop their life-saving therapy.

«These are patients who cannot be treated at home, they cannot survive without medication, without medical care and medical personnel » — told Reuters the head surgeon of the hospital Volodymyr Zhovnir.

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“There is a shortage of food and many basic things”

Ohmatdyt is the largest children’s hospital in Ukraine. Usually there are about 600 patients here, currently there are 200 of them. There are not only children with cancer here, but also those who have suffered from the bombing of the city. A 13-year-old who was brought here by ambulance after the shelling was recently operated on in the surgical ward. In addition to him, several others were treated from gunshot wounds and from shrapnel. One is still in bad shape.

Among the mothers staying in the hospital basement is Maryna, whose nine-year-old son suffers from blood cancer and requires regular treatment. “When we hear the sirens, we have to go downstairs” — Maryna said. —“Here we also get treatment, we have drugs, but we lack food and many basic things” – she added.

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Volodymyr Zhovnir, the chief surgeon, said the hospital had accumulated enough drugs for a month, but added that needs food for newborns. Some children need e.g. insulinbut pharmacies are closed. The doctor is also worried about the little ones who did not come to the hospital due to the war and need treatment or treatments.

“If this continues, our patients will die”

However, children with cancer are in the worst situation. «These children suffer more because they have to stay alive to fight cancer — and this fight cannot wait» — Dr. Łesia Łysycia from Ohmattdyt told nbcnews.com. Many children today only have access to basic chemotherapy. Other treatments have been discontinued, raising concerns that relapses, leading to death, are awaiting instead of the expected remission. “If this continues, our patients will die” — emphasizes the doctor.

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For some patients, the solution may be to transport them to other hospitals, in western Ukraine, where it is still relatively safe. There is a hospital in Lviv and institutions in Poland. However, the number of beds in Lviv is shrinking. It is far from Polish hospitals, and queues are forming at the border.

14 sick children were sent to Lviv by bus, a roundabout route takes several hours. Behind the bus, the parents and their 37-day-old daughter, born with leukemia, drove by car. “I don’t know how she will survive it” — says Julia Nogovitsyna, head of a charity that works for children with cancer.

A second bus with about 20 children will join the group on Tuesday in Lviv. From there, the police will escort them to the Polish border.

Also read:

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  2. Ivan stayed in Lviv to defend his homeland. His girlfriend has been waiting at the border for two days
  3. Oxygen supplies in Ukrainian hospitals are running out. The threat returns
  4. Three children were born on the Polish side of the border. Their mothers fled Ukraine

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