Posts Tagged Kosovo
Visit to Kosovo
Posted by Lawrence Faulkner in Kosovo on May 28th, 2010
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.
In Kosovo, with the Italian Peacekeeping Force
Posted by Eugenio La Mesa in Kosovo, Leukemia, Projects on November 17th, 2009
By Lawrence Faulkner
I returned to Kosovo after more than three months. This time I’m with Roberto Valerio, a Cure2Children board member, Miriam Davidovich-Befani, President SOS Infanzia in the World, and Veronica Brandinu, a professional nurse from the Pediatric Onco-Haematology Department of the Gemelli Hospital in Rome.
Miriam organized for us to stay at the Villaggio Italia, were we arrived on Saturday 24th October on a civilian flight which made a stopover in Tirana, the Italian CIMIC (Civilian-Military Cooperation) kindly came to pick us up at Prishtina airport and took us to the Villaggio Italia, near Pec. A little over an hour on a road under construction, by 2014 Pristina and Pec should be linked by a 4 lane highway.
Sunday we rested. On Monday morning Dr. Ergyl Gafur, Department of Paediatrics of the Pec Hospital, joins us and we arrive in Prishtina around 9:30am. Waiting for us there are 20 or so families as well as our local coordinator Leonora Bajraktari and our data manager Gresa Abrashi.
We were very happy to see all the children with leukemia that we have followed since their diagnosis, the first children ever treated solely in Kosovo, they are doing well and their mothers seem serene. Leonora has done a great job following all these families and making sure that they lacked none of the necessities. We even saw some of the children with onco-haematologic problems which were initially treated in neighbouring countries such as Albania or Macedonia, others have been referred by the Italian peace-keeping force.
At the end of the day we discussed future programs with the medical department and the local associations. We explored the possibility of supporting CMIC to set up a core laboratory that would make Kosovo independent in the diagnosis of leukemia and other diseases with their responsible, Lieutenant Colonel Tedeschi.
We’d like to thank everyone and in particular Lieutenant Carmelo Chiolo for his kindness and availability.
My journey in Kosovo
Posted by Luigi Clemente in Kosovo, Leukemia, Testimonials on May 26th, 2009
by Veronica Brandinu
It was proposed to me by Professor Riccardi, the Director of our Department, to take a couple of days leave and head for Pristina in Kosovo, and to go to the city hospital and get to know and help the nurses in the pediatric onco-hematology department.
I accepted with great enthusiasm, and having already had an experience abroad I know that these opportunities are enriching both professionally and personally.
On our first day, before going to hospital I had the pleasure to meet Leonora, the mother of a young patient treated in Italy in my department, who in the local association has several responsibilities, one of which is cultural mediator between us and the staff. A woman with great patience, during our few days stay in Pristina, she was dedicated to us, even in her free time taking us around the city.
The hospital is divided into pavilions, the impact of pediatics is destabilizing, moving from the 1st floor of the department of general pediatrics, which is dilapidated, to the 4th floor of pediatric onco-hematology which has been completely renovated, thanks to a donation. You have the impression of not being in the same place, however, as you are separated from each reality only by the stairs.
When I entered the ward, I was greeted by some of my ex patients from Kosovo treated in our division in Italy, who are now out of therapy, and who go to Pristina for routine checks. This is a further assurance that our work can and should work. Read the rest of this entry »
Kosovo: the new agenda
Posted by Luigi Clemente in Kosovo, Photos on May 8th, 2009
Stefania Peppicelli (member Cure2Children), Veronica Brandinu (paediatric nurse onco-haematology Policlinico Gemelli, Rome) and I, arrived in Pristina on the evening of April 22. We left from Fiumicino airport in Rome and arrived in Tirana, Albania. The next morning we met with Leonora (local coordinator of the support program for families), and were given an update on each of the patients, as we walked from the Hotel Baci to the Pristina Hospital, as it was not so far away.
Bardhyl and the rest of the staff welcomed us very warmly and we prepared an agenda for the next two days. There were many issues to be addressed: drug delivery and customs clearance, meeting with the local parents association, planning future actions, meeting with nurses to debate on central venous catheters, meeting with medical staff to discuss the management of possible relapses and the role of bone marrow transplants in leukemia. Then there are the procedures to be done and patients to discuss. Read the rest of this entry »
Kosovo: Targeted Assistance
Posted by Luigi Clemente in Kosovo, Leukemia on February 9th, 2009
C2C is supporting the cure of four children with leukemia at the recently renovated pediatric onco-hematology unit of Prishtina. Mrs Leonora Bajraktari our local coordinator, herself the mother of a girl with leukemia treated in Italy at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, is providing logistic and financial help to these families as well as precious advice and psychological support in coordination with pediatric onco-hematologists following the children in Prishtina. All children are doing well so far, the forth one was just diagnosed and should start treatment this week.
Drugs and other medical supplies covering the needs of these children are being provided by C2C with the support of the Italian peace-keeping civilian-military cooperation task force (CI.MI.C)
The inauguration of the new pediatric onco-hematology ward at Prishtina University Hospital on Friday December 5, is a lucky coincidence that further increases the potential of this cooperation.