A Gentler Method For Pediatric Surgeries In Ukraine

While many in Ukraine have left their jobs to fight on their country's frontlines, physicians and surgeons who have stayed behind are left to fight another kind of battle—emergency rooms that are flooded with victims suffering from shrapnel wounds and lost limbs. Unfortunately, those arriving include children.    

The Children's Hospital in Dnipro treats most of the severely wounded children in Eastern Ukraine. Approximately 95% of them require immediate surgery.  

Brother's Brother Foundation spent the past several months in contact with leadership and staff at the Children's Hospital in Dnipro to supply doctors with advanced surgical equipment they need to operate on children using less invasive procedures. Endoscopes, long thin tubes equipped with a light and camera on the end, allow doctors to remove tumors in the head and neck and foreign objects in the digestive tract without making incisions. The same goes for metal fragments lodged in patients who have sustained war wounds.    

Surgeries performed with endoscopes not only enable patients to recover faster, but they also limit scarring. In cases where a child has wounds that implicate visible or delicate areas of the body, such as the head or neck, these surgeries can lead to an improved quality of life.    

BBF sent two shipments of surgical instruments to Dnipro in March and early May, the first of which was supplied in partnership with Boston Children's Hospital. Doctors began using the equipment immediately and have described it as "an invaluable contribution in [the] development of our medicine and hospital."   

Hospital staff estimate that hundreds, if not thousands, of children will benefit from the advanced equipment.