by Lawrence Faulkner
I’m in contact almost daily with Bardhyl and the others in the team in Pristina, but I haven’t been back to Kosovo for several months. This visit coincided with the Symposium of the Kosovar Society of Oncology, where I’ll present the Cure2Children experience in developing services for bone marrow transplantation in low and middle income environments.
On Thursday morning, 20 May waiting for me in Pediatric Hematology / Oncology, Bardhyl greets me along with other colleagues, as well as Gresa and Leonora (our Data Manager and Family Support Coordinator). We do a quick tour of the department, and I see again with much pleasure, the first two children with leukemia ever treated in Kosovo and who’ve almost completed their treatment. At about 10:30 we meet with Dr. Fisnik Kurshumliu, a young and energetic pathologist, who speaks excellent english and is a specialist in cancer diagnostic methods. Ilir meets us, the local Parents Association Coordinator for children with cancer (NKF-KS-www.nfk ks.org), and together with the doctors we discuss how to proceed with the funding and needed equipment for the department for the method of diagnosis and treatment of leukemia: cytometry. Today it is run on compassionate grounds from the Policlinico Gemelli in Rome, but naturally it requires that the department, which now follows about 70 children (almost one third of the cases of the pediatric population of Kosovo), to become independent with an international accreditation. We discussed a plan that would enable the department to offer the test on a non-profit and social responsibility basis, but also providing a perspective of financial self-sufficiency. This method in fact doesn’t cost much more than what parents spend to send samples to Italy, and is therefore likely to generate sufficient resources needed to become autonomous.
The next morning I give my report, I was given a place of honor in the Scientific Committee of the 10th Symposium of the Kosovar Oncology Society and sit at the table together with Professors Besim Sllamniku (President), Suzana Manxhuka-Kerliu (Vice President), Behxhet Osmani (Deputy Chairman) and Frederik Cuperjani (Secretary General). The sSmposium is organized very well but unfortunately for me, being that the official language is Albanian, I’m not able to follow all of the presentations. In the afternoon a meeting organized by Ilir at the Kosovo Ministry of Health with Doctors Isa Zymberi and Lulzim Cela, Principal Advisor of the Minister of Health. Both very professional, they gave me the impression that they really appreciated the work done by the colleagues of Pediatric Hematology / Oncology, the importance of the project and its potential to reduce infant mortality in Kosovo, limiting migration and the financial hemorrhage for health professionals and Kosovo. Ilir tells his story, how his wife Dua and son bounced back and forwards for two months between Pristina and Belgrade without a diagnosis, finally going to Graz (Austria), but when it was too late. They spent €300,000 euro to care for their child who had a curable disease (lymphoma) without being able to save him. Dr. Cela, very taken aback by this, has pledged not only to become a member of the Parents Association, but to convince the Minister of Health to visit the department of Pediatric Hematology / Oncology. It would be a wonderful recognition and a very important opportunity.
In the evening a social dinner with the Oncology Society in a pleasant downtown restaurant. Pristina is a city full of life and the young, I don’t think the average age exceeds 20 years old. It’s Saturday morning, and the turn of the Physicians of the Pediatric Hematology /Ooncology, for the first time to present their experience to the Kosovar Oncology Symposium, they appear very happy and very proud, and so am I.
That evening, Bardhyl takes me to a place where we have dinner together while watching the Champions League Final: Bayern-Inter.