She then experienced a relapse. Russia invaded her hospital in Ukraine, disrupting doctors’ attempts to heal her.
The toddler was forced to hide in the basement at the hospital in Lviv’s western city after being subjected to air raids. This made her feel worse. After her parents’ accident, which left her mother with brain and leg injuries, she cried often and sought comfort from her grandmother.
Yeva’s grandmother was told by doctors that she could leave to Poland. She seized the opportunity.
Nadia Kryminec, holding her granddaughter, said that it was difficult for children to travel somewhere at night and stay in one place for long periods of time.
“We were informed that she was stable and should be allowed to leave. She is doomed to die otherwise,” said the grandmother.
Her grandmother claims that the little girl understands everything. She is one of over 400 children in Ukraine who have been treated for cancer and sent to a clinic there. The doctors then placed them in one 200-plus hospitals across 28 countries.
“We triage patients when they arrive to our center,” Dr. Marcin Wlodarski said. He is a pediatric hematologist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee. He also staffs the Unicorn Clinic Marian Wilemski in Bocheniec in central Poland.
He said that stable patients are quickly transferred to other hospitals while those in poorer condition are stabilized first in Polish hospitals.
Wlodarski stated, “Then they can return to us and be sent for further traveling.”
Because young patients in oncology require immediate decisions, it is important to make quick decisions.
The evacuations started immediately after Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24, and are a joint effort of St. Jude and the Polish Society of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology (Polish Society of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology), Poland’s Fundacja Herosi, and Tabletochki, a Ukrainian charity which advocates for children living with cancer.
Dr. Marta Salek is another pediatric hematologist-oncologist from St. Jude and staffs the Polish clinic. She said that the center receives large numbers, as well as convoys arriving via humanitarian corridors.
She said, “At times, we can have convoys only with 20-something patients, but we can have up 70 patients at once and more,”
A large container of white unicorn stuffed animals is found in the clinic. It’s surrounded by a wooden train set, colorful balloons, and other toys that children love to play with.
As Ukraine faces a brutal military assault by Russian forces, more than 3 million people have fled the country. Nearly half of these are children. More than 2 million of those have fled to Poland, Ukraine’s largest neighbor to the west. According to a Polish official, 1,500 refugees are being treated in Polish hospitals. Many of them are hypothermic from their journey and 840 are children.
Friday’s statement by the World Health Organization stated that cancer is one major problem arising from war. It stated that it supports the efforts of the organizations “working against the clock” to reconnect pediatric patients with their treatment.
“Cancer is not a problem in itself, but treatment interruptions and stress, as well as the risk of infection, mean that hundreds might die before their time,” stated Dr. Roman Kizyma of the Western Ukrainian Specialized Children’s Medical Centre (Lviv), where pediatric oncology patients are stabilized before being sent over the border to Poland.
Kizyma stated in a WHO statement that “we believe these are indirect victims of the war.”
Anna Riabiko (Poltava, Ukraine) was one of the many people who visited the clinic this week. She was there to seek treatment for her daughter Lubov who has neuroblastoma.
Ukraine is currently in a state of emergency. There is fighting, no doctors are available, and it is difficult to get surgery or chemotherapy. She said that maintenance therapy was also impossible to obtain. “So we had no choice but to search for salvation.”
She said that it’s not an easy step for all parents to take in caring for sick children.
She said that many sick children stayed there. “Parents were afraid and didn’t want to risk the unknown,” she said.
___
This story has been corrected so that Kizyma is the correct spelling.
