Fighting for Her Life, Far From Ukraine

A 5-year-old Ukrainian woman with a mind tumor was one in all a number of kids introduced for remedy in america after their nation was invaded by Russia.

MEMPHIS — When Russia invaded Ukraine, Marija Pyzhyk was nonetheless nervous primarily about her 5-year-old daughter, Khrystyna, who was being handled for a mind tumor. The household lived in Lviv, the western metropolis close to Poland, removed from the rockets raining down within the east.

Quickly, nevertheless, Ms. Pyzhyk was knowledgeable that the hospital was about to expire of the treatment to deal with her daughter; she must be evacuated instantly for care in a foreign country, the physician advised her.

“I had actually believed we might proceed our medical remedy in Ukraine,” Ms. Pyzhyk recalled.

Khrystyna’s situation, optic glioma, a most cancers commonest in younger kids, may cause blindness and even dying with out constant remedy to shrink or stabilize the tumor. Khrystyna requires each day oral chemotherapy.

On March 16, Ms. Pyzhyk, Khrystyna and her son, Sergei, 10, bid farewell to her husband, Volodymyr, and boarded a bus to Poland, the place they joined a number of different evacuated households with ailing kids. Whereas different households had been directed to hospitals throughout Europe, Ms. Pyzhyk and her kids had been advised they might be flown to america.

“We’re so removed from household and associates and our homeland,” Ms. Pyzhyk mentioned this week at a hospital in Memphis, the place her daughter is now a affected person. She didn’t hesitate, she mentioned, as a result of Khrystyna’s life relied on it.

Among the many hundreds of thousands of displaced Ukrainians are 1000’s of sick kids who might not be handled there. Greater than 400 Ukrainian pediatric most cancers sufferers have handed via Poland en path to medical facilities in different nations.

Khrystyna was amongst eight Ukrainian kids who arrived in late March at St. Jude Youngsters’s Analysis Hospital, an establishment specializing in childhood most cancers that’s funded by personal donors. The hospital had arrange a triage clinic in Poland to determine kids in want of care and place them with partnering hospitals, primarily in Europe.

“If all these kids stayed in Ukraine, they had been going to die of their illness, complication of the remedy of their illness, or battle,” Dr. James Downing, the chief government of St. Jude, mentioned in an interview.

Pediatric most cancers remedy requires a fast succession of medication with excessive depth, he mentioned. “Any interruption of remedy considerably will increase threat for failure, relapse and in the end dying from the illness. It’s a timing difficulty.”

Six days after that they had left Ukraine, the Pyzhyks checked right into a two-bedroom condominium at Goal Home, the Memphis hospital’s residential facility, with two suitcases and two small luggage.

After a go to to the hospital, throughout which Khrystyna acquired vaccinations required earlier than commencing her oral remedy, Dr. Ibrahim Qaddoumi requested his little Ukrainian affected person what the Barbie doll she acquired on the hospital was cooking. “Ukrainian borscht,” an interpreter replied.

On an outing later to a world market with two different households, Ms. Pyzhyk looked for buckwheat and bitter yogurt. As they ready to take a look at, the proprietor of the market mentioned they didn’t have to pay. “I’ve been via battle. Two of them,” he mentioned.

At their subsequent cease, an American-style grocery store, they had been dazzled by the big selection of produce. On the deli counter, staff provided them samples of salami. “Take your time,” one attendant mentioned.

Ms. Pyzhyk has been commonly getting ready Ukrainian dishes at their condominium. However Khrystyna and Sergei most get pleasure from consuming on the hospital cafe, the place they will order cheeseburgers, macaroni and cheese and even fried catfish, a Southern traditional. Their favourite is hen strips and fries.

Khrystyna is conscious that Ukraine is at battle, mentioned her mom. “It’s not possible for her to not know what’s going on. She was uncovered to air raid warnings,” she mentioned. “However I don’t suppose she is aware of what which means.”

Again house in Lviv, her husband has fretted about what is going on to his household on the opposite aspect of the world, however he mentioned in a cellphone name that his daughter has been courageous all through her yearslong remedy. “My daughter is a powerful persona,” he mentioned. “She is a real Ukrainian.”

Khrystyna and Sergei have a detailed and tender bond. He’s his sister’s protector, holding her hand once they enter the hospital, stroll to the physician’s workplace or sit down for English classes.

Sergei mentioned he beloved his sister from delivery. “I felt I had a brand new buddy for all times,” he mentioned. “I deal with her, however generally we argue like regular individuals. It by no means takes too lengthy for us to be associates once more.”

He’s keenly conscious of his sister’s vulnerability. Glioma can have an effect on the attention, and Khrystyna’s left eyelid is half closed; the realm above her eye bulges barely.

Not lengthy after they arrived, Ms. Pyzhyk took her kids and Marya, one other Ukrainian youngster, on their first journey to a zoo. They lingered close to the giraffes, lions and zebras, in awe.

However by the top of the second week, the fact that they weren’t on a trip, and that house was very distant, began to set in.

“Will we fly house immediately?” Khrystyna requested her mom at dinner, solely to burst into tears when she heard the response. Sergei tried to consolation his sister, gently massaging her again.