The Oblast Paediatric Hospital (Slobodka)

 

Oblast Paediatric Hospital can accommodate up to 400 children and is one of the largest general hospitals in Odessa . The orphaned/abandoned baby unit can cater for up to 20 babies.

This was one of the first establishments visited in Odessa by the founders of the charity. It was immediately apparent that funding was critically short. Although doctors were prepared to carry out surgery without any form of payment, there was often insufficient funding to pay for adequate after care and medicines. Charity co-founder Ken Wills made an immediate donation to the unit to help alleviate the situation, and subsequently the charity has helped assist numerous children by providing prescribed medicines and antibiotics, as well as basic materials such as pampers. Without doubt lives have been saved.

The unit is crucially short of equipment which can result in the loss of life. Much of what equipment there is is woefully out of date and needs to be upgraded/replaced. Much of the equipment needed is very expensive and will require considerable funding. It is one of the long term aims of this charity to give as much help as practicable to this unit.

	This room is used to clean all the bedding and baby clothes. Space is at a premium.
	This is a room where abandoned/ orphaned children are treated during their hospital stay (June 2006)
	Here a nurse changes one of the babies (June 2006)
	One of the babies is undergoing a medical procedure...

	The baby to the left suffered from ‘Down's Syndrome'. Sadly it died in early March 2008 due to severe illness and a lack of medicine.

For those unfamiliar with the Soviet system for hospital care, it is normal to pay for all medicines plus pay money to both Doctors and nurses. Only the bed and room is provided by the state. It is the responsibility of the patient to arrange specialists, visit X- ray departments, and arrange blood tests etc after an initial investigation by a doctor. For everything there is a queue. If you want to be seen quickly you have to pay money. Your family are responsible for your care. They must provide your food and look after your general wellbeing whilst in hospital. It is rare for citizens of Ukraine to hold health insurance due to costs.

It is clear that those without family or friends have a clear disadvantage. It can be a hard life in Ukraine .

As part of the charity's commitment to this hospital, regular visits are made to the abandoned baby unit and a variety of medicines, antibiotics and general items such as pampers are regularly provided. In cases of emergency, the charity has a small fund set aside to ensure that there can be no further loss of life due to insufficient funds for post operative medicines.

In June 2008 the unit was provided with a DeVilbiss sucking machine and a set of electronic baby scales as requested by the hospital.

The sucking machine on the left was the only such unit at the hospital. It was vital for clearing babies' lungs of fluids but was old, temperamental and at times unusable. The unit was heavy and difficult to use in emergencies. As can be seen the new unit supplied by the charity (on the right) is a fraction of the size of the old machine and is fully portable with a rechargeable battery pack.

	These are the scales that were used at the hospital to weight the babies. As can be seen they were rather old and extremely heavy to move around.
	These are the new scales which are electronic and portable.
	Kateryna and Graham are seen here delivering a supply of medical goods with the head of the department intended for the abandoned baby unit. This is a regular activity of the charity.

The sucking machine was specifically acquired to help babies such as these. The baby on the right was suffering from numerous birth defects which required the use of this machine to help clear his lungs and throat from fluids. Alas this baby will already have died by the time this page appears on our web site.

Visits to this unit are often difficult and quite emotional. It is not easy to look at such young children who you know will shortly no longer be with us.

Charity volunteer Polina Tkochenko looks at some of the babies during a visit to the hospital to supply medicines in June 2008.