Cancer patients and war. How sick migrants are saved in Lviv

Lviv Oncology Regional Treatment and Diagnostic Center.

Ukrainian clinic of world scale. 8,500 operations, 25,500 patients every year. 164 doctors work in 17 departments.

Up to 540 patients can stay here at the same time.

And also 3 laboratories - clinical, cytological, radioisotope diagnostics, offices of hyperbaric oxygenation, functional diagnostics, endoscopic, bronchoscopic.

The center's polyclinic has the offices of a cervical surgeon, a mammologist, a urologist, a thoracic surgeon, and a chemotherapist. The polyclinic receives more than 120,000 patients a year. Dept. of Oncology and Medical Radiology of LNMU named after D. Halytskyi is located on the basis of the Center.

My name is Khavunka Andrii Volodymyrovych, I have worked as a radiation therapy doctor, in the department of the same name of the Lviv Oncology Center since 2006.

The desire to be a doctor appeared in my school years. I decided to become a doctor.

My parents supported me in everything. And after graduating from Lviv Medical University in 2006, I completed an internship in radiology. After that I took specialize in radiation therapy.

Since then, I have worked at the Lviv Regional Oncology Center - in the radiation therapy department.

Radiation therapy is one of the three main methods of treatment in oncology: surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. We use radiation therapy

both in radical treatment and in combined treatment.

Patients mostly undergo all treatment methods. That is, there is an operation, followed by chemotherapy treatment. After that, radiation therapy is performed.

Or at the same time — chemotherapy together with radiation. Our department is quite busy, we treat about two hundred people a day.

That's quite a lot of people. We have the appropriate equipment for this - radiation therapy devices.

We have two devices. Cobalt apparatus and American-made linear accelerator . The accelerator has been available in Lviv since 2007. This is modern technology, modern equipment, which makes it possible to carry out high-quality radiation therapy at the highest level — the world level: to use the radiation dose clearly on the tumor, the area of ​​the regional lymph nodes, which are subject to this exposure.

Of course, two devices for such a large number of people is not enough. Therefore, we are currently repairing in the department where one more, third accelerator will be installed. Even more modern.

This is the case in the most developed countries, in Germany and the USA. And in the near future we will open it. The quality of treatment will only improve from this.

The hospital has virtually all surgical departments, except for neurosurgery. It is dealt with in other institutions.

The rest is completely provided by surgical treatment. The chemotherapy department is separate. Big "chemotherapy". And our radiation therapy.

A fairly large Oncocenter, which works both in the Lviv region and in neighboring regions, which are near us. And now, given the state of war, we also treat many patients from the regions, which actually had no need to come to us before: Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv.

At the beginning of the war, we had many patients from the Kyiv region, from the city of Kyiv. Patients continue to come to us from the East and South of Ukraine. There are many people. And we try to provide everyone with assistance at a modern level. We do not refuse anyone.

 And we treat - let's say so.

It would be good if all people underwent a preventive examination every year.

Just as we, doctors, undergo such examinations. Such as X-ray, cardiogram, ultrasound, other examinations. In order to be able to detect the disease at an early stage, when it is not yet felt at all.

When the disease is already in an advanced stage, then it is usually much more difficult to treat this disease.

If in the early stages, if, for example, we take cancer of the larynx, such localization — then at an early stage it is treated even only with radiation therapy. And in the later stages, it is already necessary to involve surgical treatment, which is very traumatic.

Because patients actually undergo an operation such as a laryngectomy - when the larynx is "removed" completely. A person cannot speak after this operation.

This is done according to vital indications. Also both chemotherapy and radiation therapy are performed. That is, when the disease is neglected, the complexity of treatment increases. And then patients need complex treatment when it is more traumatic for the patient.

Let's say so, all of our types of treatment have complications for the patient.

Both chemotherapy and radiation therapy. But if these treatments are applied correctly, in the right order - the patient has a chance of recovery.

Therefore, I would like to say that every person should undergo preventive examinations at least once a year. They turn to their family doctors. And family doctors — according to age, prescribe certain examinations that a person needs for that age.

Even taking into account the conditions of the war, the hospital has funding and medicines.

Patients now practically do not buy any drugs, we are provided with them.

Repairs are in progress. As I have already said, we are installing the newest, a very expensive modern device for radiation therapy.

So, over time, we will be at the level of the most modern European hospitals. There are many patients from areas of active hostilities who are destitute.

We try to help them in every possible way. We understand difficult situation - purely from a human point of view. We try to help them. Not only in medicine, but also psychologically.

A doctor is a profession in which you need to constantly learn. Because the standards of treatment change and improve over time.

A large number of researches are conducted in the world. In particular, in Europe, the USA.

They fund those researches, and of course the standards of treatment change based on those studies. And of course we need to follow it and learn.

It would be very good for us if we had more opportunities to do internships abroad. Adopt this experience. Before the war, of course, we traveled abroad and studied.

We were in Poland, and in Germany - in Dusseldorf. Our colleagues were both in Switzerland and in the States.

We hope that the war will end and we will be able to study abroad. Adopt this experience for the benefit of our patients.

Yevchushkina Alla Mykhaylivna, I come from the Kherson region.

I grew up in a wonderful region in Ukraine, and recently lived in a picturesque village on the banks of the Dnipro-Buzky Lyman. Beauty all around, that's all. Which Russia has taken from us, has taken away our whole life.

Before the war, back in November, I noticed that I already had...

I saw it before, but I didn't go to the doctors, because my pension was small. I thought there was nothing wrong. And once I was standing, the family doctor was walking, I asked her to look at me.

She touched it and said: "To be in the hospital tomorrow." I came, the gynecologists looked at me, I passed the tests.

And they told me that I have oncology and I need to go to the hospital. And the next day I went to the hospital in Kherson.

I was examined there. And I have stage three cancer of the right breast. And lymph nodes with metastases. I underwent the 5-th chemotherapy on February 22. I was discharged on the 23rd. On February 24, the war began.

It was very hard to bear. You feel nauseous after chemotherapy at the first days. Heavily.

Saved herself with citrus. Oranges, tangerines. My son brought it to me, I put it in the refrigerator. I ate them all the time. I was saved by them.

Chemotherapy is hard. My liver got enlarged right away. After the first chemotherapy, the tests were bad, the liver doubled in size.

And I still needed to do the sixth chemotherapy, but they didn't do it. Because I had very bad analyses.

The war began on the twenty-fourth. I have such a basement that it was impossible to hide in it.

If covered - that's all. That's why I was lying on the bed. One day in the morning, before ten minutes to six. I heard - it was such a roar, I don't even know how to describe it.

One hum above the roof. And the second. And the second projectile returns - and breaks off. When I got, turned on the TV, it was announced that two cruise missiles had flown before ten minutes to six.

One of them was shot down. And it was them, I heard it, it was terrifying. On the day I left, my sister from Oleksandrivka was with me. This is a nearby village.

It was destroyed by "orcs" from the face of the earth. There is absolutely nothing left of the houses. Acquaintances tell us what the landfills were doing there. They cleared, divided, destroyed houses.

Fences, they completely leveled everything with tanks. These "orcs" went from house to house, took all household appliances from people, robbed everything they could.

Products were taken, everything was completely looted. People were killed. How many corpses of our fellow villagers lay there. And in the neighboring village - a lot. They do not spare us.

On February 25, I had to undergo a CT scan, as I was standing in line at the regional hospital. The war started and that's all.

When the war started, I had a shop nearby, because I cann't walk much. I have problems - I can't walk much. My legs hurt a lot.

What saved me was that there was a store behind me, so I bought some groceries. I had something to eat. Regarding to light and water. As soon as something broke, we repaired it immediately. Utility equipment worked, everything were restored and supplied to people.

On that day, when I leaved, my sister and I were sitting and going to go to dinner. And I don't know what stopped me. Well, I was late for ten minutes.

What did we listen? A fragment hit the window and there was an explosion. Glass fell. I run in, my sister follows me. Let's see, and my door from the children's room is open. And small pieces of glass in two rooms.

And a big hole is punched in the window. I come in to the kitchen, and there, too, the window is broken. If my sister and I had sat down to eat right there at the table , we would not have been there any more. The fact that we stayed, that we did not leave - that's why we stayed alive.

My neighbor gave me tape, I taped the window. After lunch people said occupiers have been already in the village.

And they go from house to house, demand passports and check people. I hear someone knocking. I go out, look out the window - an unfamiliar face. I say to myself - accept the "guests". I open the door and thought it's "they".

There were my daughter-in-law's sister with her husband. My nephew Tolik told them to take me away. Because today will be a hot night here. That we take you out of Stanislavov.

And we went with them to Oleksandrivka, because it was already evening. When we were driving, they were shooting after us. We jumped out on the other street and drove along the Lyman.

We escape to that Oleksandrivka. We need to spend the night there. And to leave in the morning at five o'clock.

The fourteen hours we sat there were unbearable. Something exploded above the head every half hour. If something fell on that basement, there would be no one alive. There is a basement for canned food. So we sat until five in the morning and then went to Mykolaiv Oblast.

I left the house wearing what I was dressed. You won't believe it - we didn't have time.

I was dressed - in galoshes, a tank top, a torn home sweater and trousers. That's how I went. There was nothing. I stayed here with nothing. Good people helped me all the time.

They shod me, dressed me. And then my childhood friend called me in Mykolayiv Oblast. She saied what you are sitting Alla. She saied I need to be treated.

And I said - where do I turn, as I have no clothes, no money - nothing. Even my phone was left there.

She said - I will give you a phone number, and you should call to the Ministry of Health. I heard they help cancer patients. You will go for treatment.

I called to the Ministry, they gave me the phone numbers of Kyiv, Lviv, and some other city. I forgot it. I called to Kyiv. I must to have a place to stay there, because I can't stay in the hospital.

My classmate from Mykolaiv is in Lviv. She was sheltered here. I think I will ask her. If she shelter me I will go. I called and got through. This is a “golden man”, a man from God. I will remember him all my life.

If wasn't him, I don't know what would happen with me. This is Orest Volodymyrovych Tril.

The doctor of this hospital. He talked with me probably half an hour. I only told him that I am a refugee. How should I be treated, if I have nothing. He said they will treat me for free.

I called to my friend and she told me to come. She agreed, and I would be taken to the hospital for two months.

I came here alone to the hospital on monday. Orest Volodymyrovych gave me his phone number.

He told me to call and he would meet me. And I think I will find it myself. I asked at the reception and they told me. I went to his office.

When I walked in, I was seeing such a kind, sensitive person with a smile. He met me. I said I called him from the Kherson region.

I felt warmth from him. He took care of me, went everywhere with me. He personally took me to all the offices.

When they started the examination, it turned out that I had very bad analyses. It's liver. After I took medicine, I got better. Then I was scheduled for surgery.

Orest Volodymyrovych personally operated. And also - Ihor Vasylyovych Protsko, head of the department. I felt warmth and help in this department, which I got into - after everything I had.

Good doctors from Lviv helped and worried about everything. I think it all depends on the management. Ihor Vasyliovych organize the team.

There even nurses are very sensitive to the patients. I am grateful to those people who treated me.

Operation was on June 2. I was discharged for several days. I had a repeat operation in the gynecological department. Uterus was removed - because after the first operation - I started having severe pain.

After that, I was discharged - on June 26. It was my 66th birthday. The radiation therapy began on July 5. I have been in treatment since then.

Today will be the twenty-second procedure. The very responsive head is Vovk Petro Ivanovich in this department. The doctor who treats me is Havunka Andrii Volodymyrovych.

No morning goes by that he doesn't stop by and ask how I am, how my health is.

The nurses here are very responsive. They gave me clothes, as I had no clothes at all. The nurse gave it. One sick was discharged. She also brought me clothes.

We keep in touch. They say people are constantly being bombed and killed there.

"Orks" in the Kherson region - here people grow vegetables - and cabbage, and cucumbers, and tomatoes, everything rots in them. The Russians do not allow export. Who does not obey - they throw it away, and then they shoot it.

A corpse was lying near the cars - the man who was driving - killed. For people to watch. And wouldn't do that. They don't let people live. Everything was taken away, stolen. They completely take everything away.

Houses were completely looted. They don't even shy away from stealing underwear. They talk to their wives and tell them that they bathed in the jacuzzi. They saw, that our people live so good in Ukraine. They even have a jacuzzi in the village.

One occupier bathed there for an hour. He told his wife: I took it for you too. I took a T-shirt, panties, and cosmetics. Not only household appliances. They even take underwear away from people.

These are non-humans, devils. Nothing more. Putin is not a man, he is the devil.

This material was prepared and financed by The European School of Oncology (Milan, Italy) - https://www.eso.net/