During this war, what has emerged is a kind of underground railroad for some of Ukraine's sickest kids.
KIELCE, Poland - On the day the first shells fell, Oksana Besidovska was at home in eastern Ukraine, waiting for biopsy results and a treatment plan that could save her daughter's life.
The doctor concluded Yevheniia needed specialized radiation therapy and advised the family to come to Moscow. But Besidovska wasn't about to cross into Russia - "they are trying to kill us" - and the Ukrainian hospitals nearby were under fire or running out of supplies. During this war, what has emerged is a kind of underground railroad for some of Ukraine's sickest kids. Doctors, nurses and specialized volunteers from dozens of countries have cobbled together a pipeline of way station clinics, buses, ambulances and a hospital train to funnel cancer patients and their families out of the country, to a "Unicorn Clinic" in central Poland, and from there to pediatric centers around the world.
Before the war, the city's Western Ukrainian Specialized Children's Medical Center treated about 20 to 30 oncology patients at a time. In the past month, those numbers doubled, then tripled. But by then, the Ukrainian medical workers and volunteers had gotten help. The Polish Society of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology sent doctors. The Polish government opened a side corridor for cancer convoys to bypass border delays that topped 20 hours on some days. Hundreds of young cancer patients were being ushered through a triage clinic that St. Jude's international division had set up in former hotel near Kielce, Poland.
Six other critical patients, by plan, were driven straight to Austria. The rest pulled down a dirt lane near the border station to find a converted passenger train waiting in a freight yard. Katarzyna Kononczuk, a volunteer physician from Bialystok, Poland, asked about the girl's first tumor, the remission, the MRI scan that showed a recurrence.Clinic officials say the flow of patients has slowed in recent days, with so many having already made it out. But these latest arrivals are some of the most challenging, because they have been denied treatment for so long or they are newly diagnosed. An ambulance waits outside just in case.
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