–
Essen/Bonn/Datteln/Dortmund/Düsseldorf/Herdecke/Krefeld/Cologne. On Sunday morning, 21 children between the ages of three and 17 from the Ukraine arrived at the Essen University Hospital with cancer and are to be treated in North Rhine-Westphalia. A bus with the children and relatives started on Saturday evening near Kraków (Poland) with the goal of the Ruhr area.
Five children remain in the children’s oncology department at Essen University Hospital. The other children were taken to hospitals in North Rhine-Westphalia (Aachen, Bonn, Datteln, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Herdecke, Krefeld, Cologne, Münster, St. Augustin) with the support of the Johanniter Regionalverband Essen and are being cared for there.
“We were selected through personal contacts and our expertise in the field of children’s oncology and asked for quick humanitarian aid,” said Prof. Dr. Dirk Reinhardt, Director of the Clinic for Pediatrics III. “It’s nice that the transport went so well despite the extremely difficult situation.”
“While the first of many other seriously ill children who have fled are being helped here at the Essen University Hospital, another team is organizing the continuous transport of medical goods to a distribution center in the Ukraine. This is also made possible by the support of our Essen University Medicine Foundation,” said Thorsten Kaatze, Commercial Director and Deputy Chairman of the Essen University Medicine Board.
The children, who were received and cared for by Johanniter and employees of the Essen University Hospital, come from the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv, Odessa and Lviv, among others, and are seriously ill, including leukaemia. They are highly endangered by the war, and their medical care in Ukraine can no longer be guaranteed. Physicians from Poland who had taken in children from the Ukraine in their facilities had reached the limits of their capacity and had asked the clinics in North Rhine-Westphalia for support.
“The children were away for more than 48 hours. We have the expertise for treatment and care in the children’s oncology department of the University Hospital Essen. But we have to see what traumas the war left behind for them,” says Prof. Dr. Dirk Reinhardt.
