Russia (bbabo.net), - Today it is five years since Lisa Glinka is gone. The seriously ill and wounded children, whom she rescued in Donbass, recovered and grew up. In her last interview, when asked what could have made her not rush to their aid, she replied: "Only a bullet." Liza died in a plane crash while escorting a shipment of medicines to a university hospital to Syria. However, her work lives on. This is what the new film "Live! War and Death in spite of" is about, which will be shown on OTR, as well as on TV channels of the LPR and DPR.
About the heroes of the film and the help that Russia is rendering them, our conversation with the president of the International charitable public organization "Fair Help of Doctor Lisa" Olga Demicheva.
Olga Yuryevna, do you meet children with mine explosive injuries today?
Olga Demicheva : Unfortunately, yes. Because the mined areas have not gone anywhere, spontaneous shelling of the "gray" zone continues.
Dr. Liza said that during the two years she has been evacuating sick and injured children in hostilities, 446 children have been helped. Five years have passed since then ...
Olga Demicheva: Now we supervise and accompany about 800 seriously ill and wounded children from Donbass.
Lisa did not have favorites, but she did have loved ones, the stories of which she especially cherished. Who are you now lighting a candle for in church?
Olga Demicheva: When children pass through your hands, everyone becomes close. We pray both for those who are alive and being treated, and for those who no longer exist. I will tell you about Nastenka Poletaeva, who received a mine and explosive injury. She is from Makeevka. Mom, who covered it with herself at the time of the explosion, lost an eye and received multiple shrapnel wounds. And Nastenka actually lost her sight. We brought her to the best clinics in Moscow, consulted, and operated on many times. Now Nastya can distinguish the silhouettes of large objects. A very strong person. I have experienced real depression, when I feel sick to talk, I just lie there and look at the wall. Now the girl is studying at a special school for blind children in Donetsk. She dreams of becoming a journalist. Despite the trauma that has twisted her life, she has a bright future.
Or another story. Yegor Popov from Donetsk lives in our House of Mercy. Such a redhead, an absolutely sunny boy. He came to us from hemodialysis. His kidneys were not functioning. In addition, Yegorushka is deaf from birth. But very positive. When he underwent a kidney transplant in the center of Shumakov, he literally a few days after that announced that he wanted to study ... music.
Beethoven ...
Olga Demicheva: Almost. Egor turned out to be very talented. Volunteers from the Martha-Mariinsky Convent began to teach him how to play the piano, and he is progressing by leaps and bounds.
It is unlikely that Donbass hospitals now have the opportunity to apply new high technologies for cancer treatment. And illness cannot wait ...
Olga Demicheva : Oncologists in Donbass are traditionally good. But bone marrow transplantation is not performed there now. New expensive technologies are not used. War is war. We bring the heaviest children here. The Research Institute of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology in Kashirka is helping us with this. There are fantastic doctors who work miracles. But they are not Gods either. Julia Volkova from Lugansk. For two years we have been struggling with pelvic sarcoma. Not a month before she was gone. The girl who until the last day worried about her family. I could only lie on my stomach. The day before her death she wrote to me: "I have a problem. Those flowers that were presented to me for my birthday have already wilted. And without them it's boring." I even tried to amuse us a little. I miss her very much.
This is not the only loss we have had. When our children are given palliative status, I write to the best specialists, send extracts not only across Russia, and ask if there are other strategies that could help. But sometimes all that remains is to pray and believe in a miracle ... I am a doctor, I understand that miracles, probably, do not happen. Or maybe there are, who knows?
Olga Yuryevna, tell us about a miracle, let everything be like in a fairy tale with a good ending.
Olga Demicheva: We have two gold medalists this year. Without any cronyism. The girl's name is Angelina Chepikova. Amazing personality. I saw her for the first time in the hemodialysis unit at the Donetsk Republican Children's Hospital. Transparent, pale. Daddy to me in tears: "Do something, you see that she is fading away!" She was in a serious condition - end-stage renal failure, hemodialysis, and all this against the background of the disease that killed her - Wegener's granulomatosis. About ten years ago it was a sentence.Angelina is the first child on dialysis whom we brought to Russia. A month of dialysis, which is a lot of money. One kind person helped. During this time, we have issued refugee status to the family. And then there was a Russian policy and the opportunity to be treated for free. Now the girl is studying at the Pedagogical University at the Faculty of Russian Language and Literature.
And Liza brought another medalist in a state of almost hopelessness with a mine-explosive injury. This is our "steadfast tin soldier" Seryozha Apresyan. He lost an arm, a leg, fingers on his second hand, he has serious eye injuries. Underwent a myriad of operations. Now he is studying to be a psychologist, wants to work in the crisis center of the EMERCOM of Russia in order to help people like himself.
What does Doctor Lisa's Fair Help take upon itself when it brings children to Russia?
Olga Demicheva: We provide transportation of seriously ill and wounded children to Russia for treatment and back. We pay for their planned treatment and examination. This applies, for example, to bone marrow transplantation, reconstructive surgeries. Emergency and urgent aid - at the expense of the Russian budget.
All MRI, CT, laboratory tests - we also undertake all this. And also a taxi for outpatient treatment: chemotherapy, dialysis, diagnostic procedures. Accommodation in the House of Mercy - rooms for a child and an accompanying person, food, all utilities, all the necessary hygiene and detergents. That is, they live with us on everything ready.
Liza Glinka believed that the House of Mercy on Novaya Basmannaya Street, which receives wounded and seriously ill children from Donbass, is such a springboard between the war, the hospital and a normal peaceful life. How many guys live there now?
Olga Demicheva: It can accommodate 14 families. If there are more people who need living in Moscow now, we rent either a hostel or a hotel at the cancer center.
Why do you need to fly to Donbass four or five times a year, or even more often?
Olga Demicheva : When I first visited Donetsk, and then Lugansk, it felt like I was late: I had to go earlier and find out more. After all, these are direct contacts with the ministries of health of the republics, with the heads of clinics, with doctors who provide assistance to children. I am a doctor and I see very well whether or not they can be helped in Donbass, whether additional help is required from us. And we speak the same language with colleagues. Steering the situation from Moscow is hopeless and absurd.
A few days after the kidney transplant in the center of Shumakov, Yegorushka announced that he wanted to study ... music. Volunteers began to teach the deaf boy music, and he is advancing by leaps and bounds
We come and host families with seriously ill children who have written applications for help to our organization. True, they often ask questions that can be resolved on the spot. But parents can be easily understood - they are scared, even if the child has a disease that can be treated at home: diabetes mellitus, epilepsy, cholelithiasis ... We explain, we help to establish treatment at the place of residence. We also try to help clinics: with medicines, equipment, consumables, training specialists in Russia ... We pay for travel, accommodation ... The salaries of doctors in Donbass are disastrously low.
What you are doing is not a state task?
Olga Demicheva: This is a very difficult and painful question. I think we are doing a common cause. We received the second largest presidential grant for 2021 for a reason. This is a very substantial amount that allowed us to do a lot. You know, until recently I was very tough against charitable organizations replacing government structures. I believe that we should not do this. However, they are quite capable of working where the state is now unable to resolve pressing issues. I am not a judge in this case, I am not competent enough to say why this is happening. But I see problems and I know what to do. Philanthropists are a kind of "ambulance", a quick response in solving many problems, including the organization of treatment for seriously ill and wounded children from the zones of military operations and disasters.
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