Once the bombing started, a single mother and her 9-year-old daughter had just a few hours to flee their home city of Dnipro in east-central Ukraine. Leaving in such a hurry, they weren’t able to refill the medication that the daughter takes to keep her cystic fibrosis (CF) from becoming life-threatening. CF affects multiple organs in the body, often making it difficult to breathe and causing respiratory infections.
Mother and daughter spent five days on the road without the medicine. The young girl’s condition deteriorated day by day. By the time they arrived at the Polish Refugee Center in Przemyśl, the girl’s health was severely compromised. The desperate mother took her daughter to the Red Cross Help Center, where a Hadassah medical team, together with several humanitarian organizations, was staffing a medical clinic for the refugees. Despite the girl’s dire condition, the Hadassah physicians and nurses were able to save her life.
The Hadassah Medical Organization (HMO) humanitarian mission in Poland has been co-coordinated between the HMO doctors on the ground and Hadassah International (HI). In an ongoing effort to build strategic partnerships, a coalition has been built between HMO and the Polish Red Cross, the World Health Organization, NATAN Worldwide Disaster Relief and the Polish health authorities. Hadassah’s (HWZOA) Ukraine Emergency Response campaign, kicked off in the beginning of the crisis, has successfully raised funds from donors across the US for HMO’s outreach to the Ukrainian refugees in Poland, as well as to provide care for those seeking refuge in Israel, both at Hadassah’s hospitals and our Hadassah Youth Villages.
HI has engaged Polish foundations and individuals in financially supporting HMO’s humanitarian mission. The HI team has assisted the doctors in organizing the logistics and administration of this medical operation—including transporting the HMO doctors during the mission and making sure that they have the necessary medical supplies. They also converse with the refugees that come to the HMO doctors for medical care, provide emotional support, and record their stories, while the HMO medical experts take care of their medical needs.