WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th August, 2020) A group of US pediatric physicians from the Cardiac Alliance is going to resume its trips to Russia this fall and winter after the COVID-19 lockdown in order to conduct complicated heart surgeries and to train local staff, the team leader Bill Novick told Sputnik on Friday.
"We supposed to have a trip to the city of Voronezh in October, but I do not have exact days, because we had to reschedule trip dates twice already due to the pandemic," Novick said.
The team also plans to visit the city of Kemerovo in the beginning of December.
"Before the COVID-19 disaster struck, we actually got a trip to Kemerovo in the middle of February. We were scheduled to go back there three times this year, but we are going to visit them only twice now," Novick added.
In both cities US physicians plan to conduct about 12 to 16 surgeries, depending on the level of complexity.
"Some of these complicated operations take 6-8 hours, some of them more moderate, and we can schedule more cases on this day," Novick added. "There will be days when we are doing one operation, and there will be days when we will do two operations."
American doctors and nurses will share their experience with local colleagues as they usually do.
"We will help with the operations, provide guidance on care of the kids after operations and try to help continue to build experience and capacity within both Voronezh and Kemerovo specialists," their leader noted, adding that a number of complicated cases stacked up due to prolonged interruption in visits.
Cardiac Alliance plans to continue working in both cities for at least two more years, he added.
In the meantime, US specialists continue advising Russian colleagues distantly when doctors in Voronezh and Kemerovo ask for their help.
"We are in contact a lot. Anytime when they see the kid that we operated, or that they are not happy with, they let me know," Novick said. "I am not going to tell you that I know how every operated child is doing today, but in general we have pretty good follow up from our colleagues."
Closed borders, quarantine requirements and absence of stable commercial air traffic constitute a problem for the team of US medical specialists who work all over the world, including such "hot spots" like Iraq, Libya, Lebanon and Pakistan.
"We have three programs in Pakistan, Iraq and Lebanon, and have been asked to show up as soon as we can. One is in Peshawar, Pakistan, another one is in Najaf, Iraq, and the other one is in Rashaya, Lebanon," Novick said.
He expressed hope that Pakistan will lift restrictions by the middle of September, so his team would be able to start working just a few days after that.
Speaking of Russia, the prominent US doctor expressed no concerns about the absence of direct flights between two countries.
"My plan is to fly probably through Minsk and to catch the flight to Moscow and then to Voronezh or to Kemerovo... I suspect that by December regular flights from New York to Moscow will resume," he said.
Novick said he is aware of the situation in Belarus, where he had programs in the past, but expressed hope that these events will not prevent him and his colleagues from visiting Russia.
"I asked our local colleagues in Belarus, and they said that right now we can still go," he noted.
This spring, Novick planned to start a joint project with prominent Russian cardiac surgeon Leonid Barbarash in Kemerovo.
"Doctor Barbarash has been researching improvements in the durability of biological artificial valves to make them last longer and function longer," Novick said. "He has asked us to use these valves in children. We will be using these valves and studying the results of functions over time."
This project is currently frozen because of the pandemic, but Novick expressed hope to come back to this idea in the future.
"Both sides are ready to move ahead on this," he said.
