A team of pediatric cardiologists from the US-based Cardiac Alliance performed 15 surgical operations of different complexity during a recent trip to Ukraine, the team's leader Bill Novick told Sputnik
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th July, 2023) A team of pediatric cardiologists from the US-based Cardiac Alliance performed 15 surgical operations of different complexity during a recent trip to Ukraine, the team's leader Bill Novick told Sputnik.
"It was a pretty productive 14-day trip to Lviv. Surgically, we operated on seven kids, and also we did eight children with interventional cath lab - we did eight kids," Novick said.
The visiting team operated on three newborns and three patients under one year of age. A girl who needed a replacement of the pulmonary valve was 16 years old.
"All the kids did well, there were no deaths, all the children were out of the intensive care unit. We are really happy with that," the doctor said, adding that the next trip is scheduled for September.
Lviv came under an aerial attack when Novick's team was there, with a bomb hitting a building a mile away from the hospital.
"It was like 2 am in the morning. There was a significant impact wave that was felt in the hospital, and of course, woke everybody up," he said.
When asked about the US's decision to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions, Novick, who operates in many hot spots around the world, said he does not like the idea at all.
"I am not going to make any excuses for my country. From the military point of view, it is a fantastic idea. From the humanitarian point of view, it is an unmitigated possible future catastrophe," he said.
He recalled that unexploded bomblets from cluster munitions could cause huge damage to civilians many years after the conflict.
"I do not like that idea, but I am not a warrior," he said.
On July 7, the US unveiled a new military assistance package for Ukraine, which included cluster munitions. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has warned that the Russian military will be forced to use similar weapons, which it has plenty of in stocks, against the Ukrainian armed forces.
Cluster munitions are banned by the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which has been ratified by 123 countries. The US, Ukraine, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and South Korea have not signed the convention.
The Cardiac Alliance, which consists of medical professionals from different countries, established a pediatric heart surgery project in Lviv in 2021, given that there was no such program in the western part of Ukraine at that time, and children had to travel to Kiev and other cities to receive relevant treatment.
