Save 1000 lives

What do 800 grams of anything look like? This must be something light and insignificant. What does a premature 5-6 month old infant weighing 800-850 grams look like? It is tiny and it looks transparent. But it is alive. There are thousands of premature infants hidden in infant incubators at maternity hospitals of whom we know nothing, where they are now, what treatment they are getting unless we face the issue of preterm birth by ourselves. Premature infants have good chances for survival provided that there is modern diagnostic and intensive care equipment. However, most Ukrainian hospitals still have old equipment and mortality rate among premature infants remains high.

In Ukraine prior to the war in 2014, 7 newborns out of 1000 newborns (aged 0-1 year old) used to die. Whereas in the EU countries there would be only 3-4 infants out of 1000 newborns. 70-75% of them used to die whether during perinatal period (22 weeks – 7 days) or during neonatal period (up to 28 days). The cause of death is often a tardy examination or the lack of thereof. We do not want to put up with such horrific statistics.

We are trying to fundraise 90 000 UAH for an Ultrasound that is desperately needed at the Mother and Child specialized center named after MD–PhD Rudniev of Dnipropetrovsk region (Children’s city clinical hospital №3). The center provides an intensive care for infants and preterm babies aged 22 weeks as well as surgery for the newborns.

This center is the only institution in the whole region. This is the place where infants from region’s towns and villages are taken to. Infants and preterm babies from Donetsk and Lugansk regions have been taken there since the war broke out.

Children from ATO zone are getting a chance for life there. But since the war broke out in the East a number of patients have doubled. There are more than a hundred patients there now. This creates a real problem while fighting for children’s lives.

Making out a quick diagnosis to a child who is in a critical state is crucial. One cannot do it without modern sophisticated equipment. One cannot do it without an Ultrasound.

There is only one ultrasonic device at the center. It is 20 years old and it was donated by Ukrainian artist Ruslana after she won Eurovision. It is shared by two hospital premises so 6 units may use it daily: (ER unit for the newborns, ER unit for older children, unit for newborns’ pathologies, unit for premature infants, plastic surgery unit, surgery unit for the newborns). Long queues, outdated equipment, old hospital management system and patients’ transfer to the premise where the old ultrasound is located literary steal precious chance for saving patients’ lives. One can’t treat complicated pathologies; operate on newborns without conventional equipment. The lack of Ultrasound is mostly missed when diagnosing blood circulatory and nervous systems of infants. Availability of such equipment should speed up diagnosis establishment of some critical cases thus reducing the mortality rate.

That is why we want to purchase this equipment for the Center. Lack of funds should not be a reason for losing children’s lives on a daily basis. We cannot cure some diseases, we cannot fight the fate but we can collect needed sum and purchase an Ultrasound. This is the aspect we really can have an effect on. If our children have a chance so we must help them. If their survival is influenced by a timely made out diagnosis then we must do everything so that those diagnoses were made on time. There should be no “buts” left, nor other reasons given to the fulfillment of this project. These children are live human beings. They are light weighted, transparent tiny creatures who feel the pain and who can feel the joy as well.

They can make it. Let us help them together.