Drop by drop

The oncology department of Kharkiv Regional Pediatric Clinical Hospital No. 1, where infants and children receive treatment, has only twelve infusion pumps. An infusion pump is a medical device that doses and adjusts medication administration into a child’s blood flow. It is essential to have at least twice as many infusion pumps as the department has at present. This is vitally important as the infusion pumps facilitate the doctors’ and nurses’ work and improve the quality of pediatric care. Our goal is to raise funds and buy at least one more infusion pump for the department.

Children with oncological diseases receive complex treatment called chemotherapy. The medications used in chemotherapy are highly toxic. Accurate drug dosing and medication administration control require special devices called infusion pumps. Infusion pumps (for “infusion” – drop-by-drop administration) are used together with intravenous lines to dose drug inflow from a larger container. Infusion pumps ensure preset drug administration speed that is of critical importance for toxic medications used in chemotherapy. In some cases, children require dosed administration of several medications at a time, and for this purpose the adequate quantity of infusion pumps is needed.

Now, imagine that there are no such devices, and a mother sitting by the seriously ill child’s bedside has to count the drops. Yes, mothers had to sit near the dropper for several days without a break and count drops of toxic drugs administered to their children. “That's not possible!”, you say? However, that was true for all Ukrainian hospitals just a few years ago.

Today children undergo treatment according to the international protocols. They receive the same medications that are prescribed to the children from other countries. Their families don’t count drops anymore, because the oncology departments have infusion pumps.

Unfortunately, the number of devices is insufficient. The oncology department of Kharkiv Regional Pediatric Clinical Hospital No. 1, where infants and children receive treatment, has only twelve infusion pumps. There should be at least twice as many. This is vitally important as the infusion pumps facilitate the doctors’ and nurses’ work and improve the quality of pediatric care.

Each infusion pump is of great importance, as well as every drop of the drug in the treatment of a serious disease. Let’s help the little citizens of Kharkiv together! Together we can do better!