Interview with a happy mother.

Thursday September 09, 2010 12:00:00 AM

The following is a portion of an interview with the mother of one of the ICHF patients for this trip.  The child's name is Bogdana.  She is 2 years old She was operated on 16th February for repair of AVSD ( Av Canal) She left the ICU 17th February. The interview was two days later, on Friday.

 I have three children including Bogdana.  When my husband found out child had downs and heart problems he left the family.  Oldest son is 20 years old, middle child is 8 (both boys).  Bogdana is 2.

 Initially, I was referred to Kyiv and there they postponed and postponed surgery, and now thank god that your mission is here in Kharkiv so we know we will get quality and we won't have to travel as far.  It's so quick and so successful, I am thanking God that you came into my life and that your mission exists.

 D: when did you find out that Bogdana needed cardiac surgery?

 When Bogdana was 20 days of age, they told me. I had my baby in the country and was transferred to Kharkiv. There was failure to thrive and here in the neonatal center they followed up on the failure to thrive and extensive congenital heart defect. She was diagnosed and I was told that here in Kharkiv they do not perform these surgeries at all.  That was 2 years ago.

 D: What are your plans for the future?

 To grow up, to be more intelligent, to develop more, to be healthy, happy, and I want to bring all my children up strong and intelligent and educated.  But most of all I want them to be loving.  Just like as god loves every person, I want my children to be loving and to love all different people unconditionally.

 D: What were you expecting?

 I expected a much slower recovery period overall.  I tried to keep my expectations low.  When I was in Kyiv this type of congenital heart disease they were in ICU up to two weeks.  Those were my expectations. The best case scenario would be a week in the ICU.  And when on the post-op day she was discharged from the ICU - , I was just overwhelmed.  Thank God and I am very grateful to god that it all went so well.

 D: What do you want to tell our physicians/team/sponsors?

 Your path is blessed by God you bring so much hope to people and it's really a miracle what you do. For a parent, when you are told that this is it, that there is no hope, you bring us hope.  I would like to wish you the same blessed path and success for the future, bringing joy to the people and happiness and hope to all children.  And to the sponsors, keep at it, keep supporting us.  It's not just for people; it's for God that they are doing this job.  Many, many thanks.

A Ukrainian volunteer, in Ukraine

Monday January 25, 2010 07:10:44 AM
There are many great and worthy causes out there in the world. Ending hunger, finding a cure for cancer, preserving our environment - these are all great causes. And personally, I hope that we do end world hunger, and that we do find a cure for cancer, and that we as a people can learn to stop trashing this planet.

But see, I am Ukrainian. I care very much about the culture of my ancestors. I am deeply upset by the injustice suffered by Ukrainians under Soviet reign, and I think there is not a better symbol of the Soviets' cruelty than the fallout (both literal and figurative) from the explosion at the Chornobyl Power Plant on April 26, 1986.

I will spare a history lesson, or details on the aftermath. For that, you can visit here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster - and you should.

What makes me SO upset is that people in Ukraine - mainly children - who need ongoing treatment are not getting it. Why? Because the government can't supply it for free, nor can the children's parents pay for it out of pocket. For life saving procedures to get performed, the time, effort and manpower simply must be donated.

If this kind of accident had occurred in this country, I mean, even if somehow with our technology that much radiation had accidentally gotten into the air after an explosion of that magnitude, we would have had the technology to prepare our cleanup crew workers and firefighters. People from the surrounding areas would be evacuated faster. Better care would be given. Better on-going care would be given. Funds and foundations for the treatment of victims would be set up. Look at Katrina (ok, maybe don't look at Katrina). Look at the help we are sending to Haiti.

Chornobyl simply would not have happened here the way it happened there, if it had happened at all.

And who knows how long it will take before all children are born 100% healthy. Before radiated land is deemed fit to be inhabited again. Before the old reactor is demolished in a carefully controlled way and completely entombed in a proper sarcophagus.

My children - my students - know what cancer is, and they know that there are hungry people in the world, and they know that we should recycle. But everytime, I have to explain what Chornobyl is, and what the consequences are.

The radiation released by that accident will be around long after everyone on the planet is fat and satiated, after cancer goes the way of polio, after we've saved all the rainforests and learned how to sort and recycle every material in existence. Long after my children explain Chornobyl to their children.

I am volunteering not just to help make better the lives of little Ukrainian children I've never met, but to spread awareness. Chornobyl is still happening in Ukraine. Chornobyl can happen here, too. Our children need to learn, and we all need to do what we can for the children already suffering.

And sometimes I wonder to myself, with a slight adjustment of events, I could have been a kindergartner in a Ukrainian school, not an American one. I could have grown up to have thyroid cancer. Or given birth to a baby who'd need heart surgery before she was a toddler. I'd be the one relying on the volunteer efforts of strangers from half a globe away. It could be me. Or my friends or family. It could be my child.

So what am I doing exactly? Nothing glorious. I am volunteering with Chernobyl Children's Project, International, on one of their cardiac missions to Kharkiv, Ukraine (located in the Eastern part of the country). While doctors and nurses will be traveling there to perform heart surgeries on infants, I will be taking pictures of the children and writing their stories. It is hard to compel someone to donate money to a cause they've never really heard of, to benefit people they will never meet. But when faces are put to names, it will hopefully inspire even those least charitable to support this worthy cause.