{"id":13556,"date":"2023-04-14T16:55:46","date_gmt":"2023-04-14T20:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnewa.org\/ca\/?p=13556"},"modified":"2023-04-14T16:55:46","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T20:55:46","slug":"treating-incurable-disease-in-wartime-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cnewa.org\/ca\/treating-incurable-disease-in-wartime-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Treating Incurable Disease in Wartime Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Staffers at Sheptytsky Hospital in Lviv were just beginning to emerge from treating patients during the COVID-19<\/a> pandemic when Russia invaded Ukraine last February, and the situation got tougher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDuring the war, the diagnosis was harder\u201d for people in terminal stages of disease, said Dr. Lyubov Hasyuk, a cardiologist and the hospital\u2019s medical director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Hasyuk said the war complicated the health conditions of some Ukrainians, especially those with incurable illnesses, many of whom receive palliative care, focused on relieving pain rather than providing a cure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Marta Rypyhovych heads the palliative care department at the hospital, named after Ukrainian Greek Catholic Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, who died in 1944. Dr. Rypyhovych said once the war began, it took until about April for staffers to get on a regular schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe lived mechanically \u2014 woke up and worked, woke up and worked,\u201d she said. \u201cIn addition to treating patients, we also received and distributed a lot of humanitarian aid. All this happened in parallel: caring for patients, as well as unloading, transporting, transferring and organizing aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd at home, there were our families who also needed our care, and it was necessary to somehow provide for all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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