Novozybkov
The
town is situated north of the Border of
both Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. It was founded at Polish territory
1701 of the Christian group Old Believers, who for the sake of their religion
had to flee from the Russian tsar. Later Novozybkov became Russian and became a
cultural centre as well as a marketplace for good business. For a long time
Novozybkov offered a good life to the people thanks to it’s good and frequent
contacts with a lot of foreign countries. Before 1986 the export of gods from
the town to other countries was extensive. However, the history of Novozybkov
has it’s black pages. During the Barbarossa Operation during the second World
War at least 400 Jewish families were murdered during one single night. Since
then Novozybkov slowly but surely had managed to heal itself, when the
radioactive cloud from Chernobyl happened to come early in the morning April
26, 1986. No one could see it, no one could hear it, but the light rain that
fell down to the earth with it’s poison.
Novozybkov should have been
evacuated…
But
there were no place to take the 45 000 inhabitants of whom 12 000 are children.
Many
people, especially the most qualified ones, managed to moved by themselves.
That is why dr Lydia only have 13 doctors instead of 33. It is therefore easy
to understand how hard the 13 doctors have to work in double shifts. Besides
they have nothing to work with except patients – nearly no medical equipment,
no consumption material and almost no medicine at all. Especially not vitamins
that are badly needed. People who live in polluted areas and eat radioactive
food get very a very weak immune system which leads to a lot of diseases like
different kinds of cancer.
The medical consequences of the Chernobyl accident
It is more frequent with heart
diseases and high blood pressure among pregnant women who lives in radioactive
polluted areas after 1986 than it was before. It is also more usual with urine
(bladder) illnesses. Almost all pregnant women gets serious anaemia and illnesses
with the thyroid gland. About 50 per cent of all pregnancies are during nine
months threatened by spontaneous abortion. An increasing number of the pregnant
women are so affected by complications during the delivery pregnancy that they
need surgery to be able to give birth. About 15 per cent of the women deliver
their babies after Caesarean section. They can not give birth the normal way
anymore. Serious bleedings, that could lead to the death of the mother, is
three times more usual now than before 1986. The death of the mother when given
birth is seven (7) times more usual in the radioactive polluted area than in
the rest of Russia.
Women’s health care is
decisive/conclusive to the future of the town
The
women give birth to the children - and the children one day have to clean up
the mess after the nuclear power experiment in Chernobyl. That is their
regrettable faith. Therefore, the pregnant women must get good health care
during their pregnancies. After 1986 most women give birth too early, since their
own health is too bad. That is why many infants die. The women need help to
keep the babies inside their bodies as long as possible. They also need all the
help they can get to be able to give birth normally. A good start in life for
the babies is probably conclusive to future life in Novozbykov. Therefore dr
Lidiya keeps the pregnant women at the hospital at least 4-5 weeks before
expected delivery. She tries to give them good (but radioactive) food (there is
no other food to get) and vitamins (if she got any) to rise their immune system
and prevent a too early delivery. That gives the children a better start and a
chance to survive.
P7
Änglagård
Änglagård
– The House of the Angel – is our name on dr Lydias maternity hospital. We felt
we needed a name, that can appeal to people – and it does!
The
hospital has tree buildings who are in a very bad condition. Besides a
laboratory there is:
Building
A - a (red) gynaecological and maternity welfare clinic and
Building
B – a (white) maternity house with infants health care clinic.
A picture of a model of the maternity hospital
First
(from above) in this picture is building A followed by building B below.
Next
comes building C – a planned hospital building that is needed as soon as
possible to begin with to evacuate patients from buildings A and B while they
are restored. Building D (the white one in this model) is a future dream. Do
not care about the buildings to the right and to the left.
The project
We shall within three years build, restore, put in
order and furnish the Novozybkov maternity hospital as much as possible – or
work after one of the alternative mentioned below:
Alternative I
We shall finance the renovation of buildings A and B
and exchange furniture as well as medical equipment.
Estimated cost: about 1,5 million crowns where of 1
million crowns are building costs.
Alternative II
We shall finance the construction of a new building C
inclusive furniture and medical equipment.
We shall also finance the renovation of the buildings
A och B and exchange furniture as well as medical equipment.
Estimated cost: about 3,5 million crowns where of 3
million crowns are building costs.
Education
We hope to – weather we succeed with alternative I
and/or II – be able to provide medical education from Sweden to the maternity
hospital in Novozybkov.
Connections
We shall help dr Lydia to get good contacts between
with Swedish medical care in order to make the situation at the maternity
hospital in Novozybkov better for both staff and patients. In fact, we have
already begun.
The gynaecological clinic at the Danderyds hospital
in Stockholm is interested in an exchange of experiences. Dr Lydia visited both
Danderyds hospital and Karolinska hospital during her visit to Stockholm in
April 2003. Swedish hospital staff are interested to visit the maternity
hospital in Novozybkov.
Huddinge University hospital has given medical
equipment and has invited dr Lydia to lecture about the medical consequences of
the Chernobyl accident and about her work at a ramshackle hospital in a
radioactive polluted town. It is a good start.
Small project within the project
The project give space for a great deal of
mini-projects for single Lions Clubs who whish to give a more personal humanitarian
aid.
Building A
The
gynaecological clinic and maternity welfare clinic
The building above is
identical with the building below. The difference is that the part of the
building shown below is older than the one above.
Building A got a new roof last
year thanks to LC Vallentuna. The old rotten one is seen on the ground
above.
See costs on page P:10.
The gynaecological clinic
The
gynaecological clinic and the maternity welfare clinic is situated in a two
floor building of stone built 1932. It was ruined during the Second World War
but built up again 1952. Since then the building has not been renovated. Rain
and snow have coming in through the roof during many years, why parts of the
ceiling here and there have falling down on the pregnant women.
During
the winter 2001/2002 the building were in such a bad condition, that dr Lydia
had to evacuate her patients to a day nursery close to the hospital. Finally
she took the decision to order a new roof without being able to finance it –
which was a big risk for her. LC Vallentuna heard about it and decided to pay –
100 000 roubles or 3000 USD – for the new roof. The alternative had of course
been to close the building for good, which had been very fateful in a catchment
area of about 100 000 individuals.
The
gynaecological clinic has 40 beds for patients. Every year around 1850 women
are treated for cancer, ovum and matrix inflammation, myom in the matrix,
complications during the pregnancy, spontaneous abortion and prenatal death of
the foetus. The maternity welfare clinic in the same building treats 150 (!)
patients per day.
Building B
Maternity house and the infants
health care clinic
The maternity house in Novozybkov
is a
hundred year old two floor building of stone. It is in the same bad condition
as the gynaecological clinic and very old fashion. The building has 30 beds for
patients in very small rooms. Delivery rooms and the rooms for operation are
without everything when it comes to medical equipment. The equipment they have
is antique, broken and/or even dangerous.
At
dr Lydia’s maternity hospital about 700-750 children are born every year.
Between
60 and 70 per cent of all deliveries are complicated and demand special
treatments.
Every
tenth child is born immature, which is twice as many as before 1986.
The
maternity hospital has got three incubators from LC Vallentuna, but there is
only one respirator and one machine to supervise the child. The staff every day
have to chose between weak children who need such equipment. One will survive,
the other will die.
There
is an increase of too slow growth among babies in Novozybkov. There is also an
increase of lack of acid in the brain which can end up in brain damages. More
children than before suffocates to death. Even more children are born with
malformations and/or mental retardation. Cancer and other diseases develops in
time. Besides there is also an increase in the number of death born children.
In 1995 not less than 11 babies were born dead. That shall be compared to 32
dead born children 2001 – a frequently increase that is three doubled.
At
least 7-9 per cent of all stated pregnancies ends in a spontaneous abortion.
From the West it is well known that about 50 per cent of all spontaneous
abortions happens due to a damage at the foetus.
Only 20 per cent of all new born
babies in Novozbykov are healthy
And
the number of sick children grows every year. The genetically and neurological
damages in children have increased in Novozbykov after 1986. The same goes for
different kinds of cancer where of cancer in the thyroid gland and leukaemia
are acknowledged by the international society. The frequency of cancer among
children, however, is increasing. Children in Novozybkov also more often gets
grown-up-diseases, which is a phenomenon one hardly did not see before 1986.
Professor
Stephanova who runs one of four Chernobyl hospital in Kiev, Ukraine, has
identified what is known as Chernobyl Syndrome or Chernobyl aids – an illness
caused by a badly hurt immune system that leads to infections and other bad
illnesses like for example cancer.
-
We got no new diseases after the Chernobyl accident, she says. The catastrophe
did not gave us a monster. We have the same diseases and malformations as
before, but they are worse and more often seen.
The situation is a catastorphe
In other words, the medical
situation in Novozybkov is a real catastrophe. About 70-80 per cent of all
children are sick, most of them in typical grown up diseases. On the name list
in school the teacher has written the diagnoses for each child.
Besides different kinds of cancer
people suffer from diseases in heart, liver, lungs and kidneys. They have
gastric ulcer, high blood pressure, cataract, diabetes, concentration problems,
dizziness, headache and bleedings from the nose. From genetically damages is
not much seen yet. An increase is expected now, when those who were babies 18
years ago becomes parents. There is also a heavy increase in neurological
damages (mentally retardation) in the generation than now is growing up.
As
an effect of the Chernobyl accident a lot of people are unemployed. There is
also a lot of alcoholism. The post Soviet regime also left a non working
administration behind and an extensive inability to grab the own situation and
do something good of it. The radioactive polluted areas are more or less
forgotten, since their problems often are too big and hard to solve. Therefore
the victims need at least a symbolic kick in their back to start to do
something about their own situation.
