RUSSIA: ST PETERSBURG HOSPITAL: US SURGEONS OPERATE ON CHILDREN скачать в хорошем качестве

RUSSIA: ST PETERSBURG HOSPITAL: US SURGEONS OPERATE ON CHILDREN

(22 Feb 1997) Russian/Eng/Nat When President Boris Yeltsin needed open heart surgery, his Russian doctors called upon the services of American surgeons for their knowledge and equipment. This week a handful of children at a St Petersburg's hospital have been getting the same privilege. But this time the lifesaving operations are being organised by a U-S charity Healing the Children. It comes as Russia's under-funded hospitals are struggling to provide basic health care, let alone specialities such as heart surgery. This is a big day in four-year-old Nina's short life -- she's going into surgery to patch up a hole in her heart. It's an operation that has become almost routine in the West but in Russia's archaic and under funded health system procedures like this are only available for the wealthy. That is until this week, when the U-S charity "Healing the Children" flew in a group of surgeons from New York. They're performing a series of heart operations on children whose parents cannot afford the huge fees for foreign or private medicines. They're also here to share their knowledge and techniques with the surgeons of St Petersburg. Although the Russian doctors are often as good as their American counterparts they have not had the same chances to broaden their experience and training. The doctors plan to operate on 23 children this week with varying forms of heart disease and congenital defects. They've been chosen from a long list according to necessity and the chances of a successful recovery. Yuri Meshenkov, an engineer at Samara's mammoth car factory Avtovaz has taken time off work to bring his son Artyom more than a thousand kilometres (650 miles) to St Petersburg. His local hospital could have performed the lifesaving operation on his son but would have had to wait until Artyom was older, and this could well have been too late. SOUNDBITE: (Russian) "They couldn't do the operation in Samara because he's too small and not yet five years old and they don't have the necessary equipment and so we were invited to St Petersburg." SUPER CAPTION: Yuri Meshenkov, father of heart patient The doctors have brought all their equipment with them - most of which is rarely to be seen in Russian hospitals but is essential both during the operation and afterwards if the patient is to fully recover. Healing the Children usually sends only fully equipped teams to Third World nations or disaster zones. SOUNDBITE: "We were a little surprised to find that a nation that was a super power was so behind us in the medical field and the social field. We have many social programmes available for our children and for poor people and we thought we would find the same thing here." SUPER CAPTION: Angelas Glick, Director Healing the Children This week's trip has been funded by Gillette - the American razor manufacturer which has a company in St Petersburg. But this is just a drop in the ocean and doctors recognise the whole health service needs not only proper funding but a complete overhaul. SOUNDBITE: (Russian) "Unfortunately we are very reliant on the West. We have to buy everything from them, syringes, needles, instruments and equipment because here surgery has to be carried out under the best conditions. Everything in the hospital must be of the best quality and only then we can get good results." SUPER CAPTION: Vladimir Novikov, Head of Cardiology Centre, the Holy Martyr Georgy Hospital, St Petersburg For her mother and father the long anxious wait is over. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...