Help St. Nicholas support little steel hearts

A miracle for St. Nicholas Day for children with burns! Let’s make it happen together! The best gift for the little patients of the largest children’s burn center in western Ukraine could be completing the fundraising campaign for critically needed equipment for their treatment.

Currently, among the burn patients of St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital, part of the First Medical Association of Lviv, is 11-month-old Yana. The little girl was admitted with burns covering 5% of her body, affecting both thighs and her stomach. Like many children her age, Yana was burned when she briefly slipped out of her mother’s sight, grabbed a teapot, and pulled it onto herself. Today, specialists are performing dressings and removing necrotic tissues while monitoring the healing of the deeper burns, some of which may require surgery in the future.

To perform such procedures, the hospital urgently needs an electric dermatome – a specialized surgical tool that burn surgeons use to perform skin grafts on affected areas. This device is critical for any burn department, especially for the largest in Western Ukraine, which now treats 700 children from across the country every year. Due to increased demand caused by the war, old equipment has become overburdened and needs urgent replacement.

"We use electric dermatomes regularly to treat children with deep burns, often multiple times throughout the treatment. We not only need the dermatomes themselves but also spare batteries and enough blades to ensure that we don’t lose the precious time we have to treat these critically ill children. Most of them cannot afford to wait for new blades to arrive or for batteries to charge, and certainly not for the only available dermatome to be sterilized", says Lesia Strilka, a burn surgeon at St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital.

The campaign to raise funds for an electric dermatome and its components has been ongoing for six months. It was launched on International Children’s Day by the Ukrainian Educational Platform. The first supporters were Lviv schoolchildren with their "Steel Heart Challenge" campaign. At the Lviv SCA Velodrome during the Cheerleading Super Cup, participants launched a dance flash mob on social media to encourage donations. The cheerleaders of the Lviv Angels club choreographed the dance and raised the first contribution of 130,000 UAH. The campaign has also been supported by the "Ururu" amusement park, socially responsible businesses, and Father Roman Demush. Together, they have raised 559,000 UAH, leaving 439,000 UAH still to be collected.

Let’s come together this St. Nicholas Day and close the fundraising campaign for the electric dermatome to treat children with burns!

In these dark times, we all need faith in light and miracles. This is our chance to become part of a pre-Christmas miracle for the young patients of one of the largest burn centers in the country.

Facts to Know. Every year, about 12,000 children in Ukraine suffer burns. During the war, this problem has become even more acute as thermal injuries accompany almost every blast-related trauma. Additionally, the number of burn injuries among children has increased during blackouts due to accidents involving candles and fires caused by alternative lighting and power sources. Until recently, children with severe burns in Ukraine had to be stabilized and sent abroad for treatment. To ensure that Ukrainian children receive the care they need at home, a world-class burn center was established at St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital in Lviv. However, further support is needed to equip the center with all the necessary tools.

Let’s create a miracle together!