Dr. Pasechnik collected Victor and me at 8:50 am to travel to the Policombank to cash two cheques. We were led into an oak-paneled and mirrored room and behind a tidy desk sat the Chairman of the Board, Mikola Tarasovets, neat and tidy like his desk. The meeting opened with the usual social cross talk and eventually the subject of cashing the cheques was brought up. The Chairman said this could be done but would take several weeks to cash and cost $40 because the cheques would have to be returned to their banks of origin and complex transfers would have to be made. We kept the cheques to think up another way.
Chernigev has five independent banks and eleven branches of other banks. Policombank has established corresponding bank accounts in New York, Germany, Austria and Holland. There has been no business yet from the UK to warrant an account.
Then on to Polyclinic No. 2 where we met Dr. Natalya Zenchenko who presented her personal records of statistics. She explained that not all events are registered . In Kharkov, a study revealed that only one percent of children are perfectly healthy. There has been no nationwide study. I wanted the term "perfectly healthy" to be defined since it is would be possible to find only one percent of USA or UK children perfectly healthy if perfect health was strictly interpreted. Dr. Zenchenko defined the one percent as perfectly healthy as those who had no health problems in a non-selected group. A major problem is that the government demands investigations and reports, but doesn't supply the funds for the investigation, equipment and secretaries. The Government of USA wanted facts on the state of health of children between two days and two years, but they made $300 million available and obtain an accurate report promptly. In Ukraine with no funding some clinical examinations are invented and records are falsified.
At 11.00 am Olga M entered with her mother Larissa. Olga, 12 years, had an operation in Kiev in 1995 for cancer of the pancreas. Gifts had been prepared for Olga and her parents by Sister Susan Clegg, an operating theater sister in Kent, England and with whom I had operated for fifteen years. Olga looked well but was somewhat overawed by it all. The presentation was made, pleasantries exchanged and Victor and I were invited to Olga's birthday party on 17/12/96 but we would be in Kiev on that day. Mother and daughter expressed their happiness and thanks to Sister Susan.
Incidences of cancer of the thyroid.
Ukraine 1981-85 per 100,000 children 0.04-0.06 1990 0.23 1992 0.41 ( tenfold increase) Kiev oblast 1992 2.41 Chernigev city 1992 6.6 (a hundredfold increase)
We then crossed the road to the Polyclinic No. 2 extension directed by Dr. Katerina Ivanovna Shvedova who greeted us warmly. We toured the therapy rooms and noted that some stocks had improved. The cupboards in the small Pharmacy were beginning to look at least partly filled with medication. All the staff expressed joy and appreciation at the improvement. The lady dentist surgeon was busy with a patient, but the dental trolley still looked poorly equipped. It was the salt therapy which I wanted to study more closely. The correct name is artificial microclimate therapy for chronic bronchitis and asthma but both must be in remission. The concept originated in the salt mines near Ivan Frankovsk in the eastern foothills of the Carpathian Mountains and was developed at Uzhgorod University. Rock salt is desiccated for two hours and poured into an industrial mill. The fine salt dust is blown into an adjacent room through ceiling vents to create a salt fog simulating the atmosphere of a salt mine. Children start therapy by sitting in the fog at first for five minutes graduating to 30 minutes once daily for a total of 20 days. This was cheaper than traveling to the Carpathians 500 miles distant. I could not obtain an analysis of the clinical results but Dr. Shvedova assured me that the results were very good.
Victor and I were then informed we were to go immediately to the City Hall. The vestibule to the Mayor's parlour was full of excited activity due to the preparations of a television crew and two glamorous interviewers. We were hurriedly introduced to the rayon Director of Education, Volodymer Kupriychenko and the Director of Medical Services in Chernigev, Dr. Yuri E. Boyko, once a Chernobyl liquidator when he was 33 years old.
Everyone was suddenly herded into the presence of the Deputy Mayor of the City, Dr. Alexander K. Pronikov. Once seated around the desk, which projected out like a jetty from the front of the Mayor's desk so that whoever is seated at the main desk is automatically the Chairman of the meeting, the Deputy Mayor delivered a quietly spoken and warm welcome followed by a masterly summary of their difficulties in Chernigev. He stressed the seriousness of their economic position to much somber nodding around the table and one could see their helplessness in their eyes. They knew they were in trouble. I was asked to speak on how and why I should be in Chernigev and through Victor I explained the history and purpose of visit and Victor completed the answer.
Then we were handed over to the television crew like Christians to the lions. The lady lioness Irina Sadchikova, a TV personality and interviewer fixed me with her gaze and suddenly and unexpectedly mauled me asking, "What do you think of the Rehabilitation Center?" Dr. Pasechnik leaned forward. They were closing in. I said I was impressed by the high standard of the equipment and beautiful decor, but more important than the therapy was the spirit of love shown by Dr. Pasechnik, Yakubova and Zenchenko towards the children without which nothing would work. The tension broke. From then on Victor and I spoke with ease into the microphones. It was nice being a Christian among such friendly lions.
The television crew came with us to the Centre to video the children at therapy and play. The children were unaware that they were the focus of all these people and were so natural.
Lunch was served in Dr. Pasechnik's office with delicious holuptsi, vegetables in fried cabbage leaves.
Again, suddenly our presence was demanded in another parlour, the Mayor of the Desnyanskiy rayon which covered half the city of Chernigev, Mikola A. Simkovich. We were rushed through the streets into a grey granite building up marble stairs and were seated in front of the Mayor. All speeches were repeated. Victor and I were getting good at this. The Chief Judge came in, "call me Mikola," and the atmosphere was alive with laughter and jokes. I explained that I found it difficult to buy a map of Ukraine, they always included Russia. The Mayor dashed out, shouted commands could be heard and in came the perfect map, ripped off the wall, I suspect, of some defenseless administrator's office.
The evening was spent at the flat of Anna Scheredina, Dr. Natalya Zenchenko's mother. Natalya had moved out of her own flat so we could stay there. A delightful evening meal was served Russian style. Conversation flowed easily because our hostesses and others are getting used to us; it ranged from Christain doctrine to how to bottle tomatoes and literature was being devoured. These are the first people in Ukraine to whom we gave our first Good News articles translated into Russian. They commented how easy they were to read.
We are not America blood-sucking capitalists or British imperialists suppressing the masses after all.
But outside it is getting colder...