St. Jude welcomes first Ukrainian children with cancer to US amid war

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — With thousands and thousands of Ukrainians fleeing conflict of their homeland since Russia invaded nearly a month in the past, St. Jude Youngsters’s Analysis Hospital helped lots of of kids with most cancers discover remedy elsewhere.

As the primary hospital within the U.S. to take action, St. Jude on Tuesday welcomed 4 Ukrainian kids with most cancers and their households, a hospital information launch stated.

“Our capacity to rapidly assist so many kids and their households in Ukraine is the work of many companions – people and establishments – devoted to the shared imaginative and prescient of bettering the standard of well being care supply and growing survival charges of kids with most cancers and blood issues worldwide,” stated Dr. Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo, director of St. Jude World, an initiative with about 160 hospitals in 60 international locations to assist facilitate the remedy of childhood most cancers.

“Whereas there may be extra work forward, we’re dedicated to doing as a lot as we will as quick as swiftly as attainable.”

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The 4 sufferers who arrived vary from ages 9 months to 9 years previous and traveled aboard a U.S. government-operated medical transport plane from Krakow, Poland, the discharge stated.

St. Jude will present the affected person’s most cancers remedy together with trauma-informed psychosocial remedy and education.

Whereas St. Jude has assisted kids with most cancers fleeing conflict zones, like Syrian kids who escaped to Lebanon or Jordan, this was the primary time the establishment had been concerned in evacuating sufferers from an lively battle zone. 

The sufferers and their households are amongst about 3.6 million Ukrainians who left their homeland, based on the United Nations Human Rights workplace.

St. Jude World launched SAFER (Supporting Motion For Emergency Response) after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 and works with Fundacja Herosi in Poland, the Tabletochki Charity Basis in Ukraine, Polish Society of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology and different worldwide organizations to evacuate kids with most cancers from the conflict zone and provide them entry to medical care to proceed most cancers therapies. 

‘WE STRIVE TO TAKE CARE OF CHILDREN’:How St. Jude is evacuating lots of of children with most cancers from Ukraine amid conflict

“The work of St. Jude Youngsters’s Analysis Hospital in Ukraine displays the hospital’s ongoing dedication to make sure kids with most cancers have entry to lifesaving care, irrespective of the place they reside,” stated Dr. James R. Downing, St. Jude president and CEO. “Our promise to kids with catastrophic ailments extends across the globe, and we’re honored to play an element in serving to these households transfer to security to proceed their kids’s remedy.”

The SAFER Ukraine collaborative assisted greater than 600 sufferers as of Tuesday, based on the press launch. The quantity contains translating medical information and coordinating convoys to the Unicorn Marian Wilemski Clinic in Poland, a triage heart. 

“That is precisely why my father based St. Jude Youngsters’s Analysis Hospital,” stated Tony Thomas, son of founder Danny Thomas and a St. Jude/ALSAC board member. “When he stated no little one ought to die within the daybreak of life, he didn’t imply simply America’s kids and it’s why St. Jude World exists right now.”

St. Jude will consider the sufferers and assist the households settle into housing services. The hospital is not going to present updates till households acclimate. 

Contributing: Corinne Kennedy, Business Attraction

Dima Amro covers the suburbs for the Business Attraction and may be reached at Dima.Amro@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @AmroDima.