How do doctors save mothers and babies with heart defects during the war?

1+1 Breakfast host Yegor Gordeyev and his crew visited the only obstetric cardiology department in Ukraine at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery named after M. M. Shcherbakov. М. М. Amosov. It is there that, despite the war and constant rocket attacks, thousands of lives of mothers with severe heart disease and their newborn babies are being saved. 

In early 2022, the intensive care units of this department were fully equipped with new expensive equipment. The money for the project was raised thanks to the concern of the 1+1 channel viewers. The charity initiative “Your Dream”, launched in 2021 in the infotainment show “Your Day”, managed to raffle off a small red car and raise a record 3.8 million hryvnias!

Even now, during a full-scale war, doctors are working effectively with the newly purchased equipment. In 2022, the department’s team diagnosed 665 pregnant mothers; 17 babies were born there and 8 heart surgeries were performed!

“Together with the Krona Charitable Foundation, we raised one and a half times more money than we had planned! It was enough to buy an expensive ultrasound and two German resuscitation systems for infants, and we still had money left over for other very necessary things,” says Gordeyev.  

How are mothers and babies with heart defects saved?

Chief Medical Officer of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery named after M. V. Meshkovsky. М. М. Serhiy Siromakha gave a tour of the department and told about its work:

Serhiy Siromakha

“This is the same ultrasound machine that helped the institute a lot when the full-scale war broke out. It was the only mobile device we could use for diagnostics outside the walls of the Institute. In particular, we used it to go to the Kyiv railway station to examine evacuated women. That device has already saved more than 400 lives of our citizens.”

And some of the equipment purchased under the Your Dream project has become an important part of the children’s intensive care unit. A CPAP machine for artificial lung ventilation was purchased, which has already saved the lives of about 30 children. The project also helped to purchase a surgical aspirator, a bilirubinometer, a phototherapy lamp, a gel sensor mattress with a temperature sensor, a changing table, new beds, and special medical cabinets.

The information content of the Your Day show was forced to be put on hold due to the war. But the charity initiative “Your Dream”, launched two years ago, is alive and well. 

During these visits, Yegor Gordeyev was the first to see the newly built training room-laboratory for doctors and interns at Amosov. The educational space was founded and is being opened by Natalia Moseychuk and the Right to Education 1+1 project, students of the Novopecherska School, and the Zdiysny Mriyu movement. The repair is completed. Interns will be able to hold their training sessions and meetings here to be inspired to become the best cardiac surgeons. The space will continue to be replenished with technological solutions.

Serhiy Siromakha, Yegor Gordeev

Yegor Gordeyev with Amosov’s pregnant patient

1+1 hosts Solomiya Vitvitska, Marichka Padalko, Lidiya Taran, Nelya Shovkoplias, Ruslan Senichkin, Svyatoslav Hrynchuk, Nelya Shovkoplias, Lyudmyla Barbir, and Yuriy Horbunov took part in the charity event “Your Dream”.

Photo: press service