Neonatal Intensive Care

Kiev City Children's Hospital #2

Neonatology

Dr. Oleh Korniychuk

Dr. Korniychuk is the Head Doctor of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Kyiv City Children’s Hospital #2. Dr. Korniychuk is a charming, warmhearted man who likes to laugh and pokes fun at himself: “15 minutes of laughter a day saves me one hour of exercise” he said while grabbing his belly with a demonstrative gesture.

On his station are predominantly infants who were born prematurely. They are sent from other hospitals to this specific ward for intensive care procedures. A fair number of these infants were born to Chernobyl parents.

Neonatology

Since none of the babies after birth could breathe on their own, they were brought to this unit for intensive care. All of them have very weak immune systems, in some cases their immune system fails entirely. In addition, most infants in this room were born prematurely. One little girl was born to a drug addicted mother. Another was an abandoned baby left to die in the streets.

Neonatology

This is little Maria. She is two months old. She had suffered severe brain damage and was unable to recognize anything. Her legs were paralyzed, movement of her arms was short and spastic.

The nurses only knew her last name so they named her Maria. Her father was a Chernobyl liquidator who had died, her mother abandoned her shortly after giving birth. The doctors and nurses at the neonatal clinic will treat her until she is fit to live, then she will be sent to an orphanage for the severely handicapped.

Neonatology

Eva Hryhorivna Lelchuk – Head Nurse of the NICU

Eva was our guide through the ICU und introduced us to all the infants on her station. Despite her rough exterior, this woman truly had a heart of gold. She told the medical history of all ‘her’ infants and some of the accounts were heartbreaking. All the babies’ lives on her station were hanging in the balance. But the moment it was clear that an infant would pull through and defeat the odds, all the nurses at the ward joined in celebration. And no day was more glorious than the day a baby was healthy enough to be released.

Neonatology

PROJECTThe Children of Chernobyl
LocationKiev, Ukraine
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