Ulyana Lushchyk, MD is not afraid of exotic diagnoses.
Talking with this vivid woman, I unintentionally find myself thinking that it is she who fits the phrase: “a self-made person”. Having arrived in Kyiv after graduating from Ternopil’ medical academy, a young doctor continued learning the secrets of the human brain – she was interested in that since she was a student. In ten years she found like-minded people, earned Ph.D., and gave a birth to her son, who is going to celebrate his first birthday soon.
Today the head of Kyiv scientific-methodological center of clinical ultrasound “Istyna” Ulyana Lushchyk treats patients, who have been regarded by the official medicine as fatal cases until recently. Colleagues and relatives of sick people call from all corners of Ukraine. They tell about their trouble and ask for help as researches and treatment of cerebral vessels worked out by her are unique.
Ponomaryov recovered “Armageddon”’s victim sight
…Galya Kryvova of 14 years old from Chervonograd in Lviv oblast’ went to school this autumn – the thing is usual for a kid of her age. Bur two years ago – after a dismal tragedy in the cinema of the district center, where children watched the movie “Armageddon” – nobody gave the least guarantee that the girl would ever walk. Galynka with three boys were delivered to the hospital in a comatose state. Doctors did everything they could – even impossible things. But Galya stayed out of consciousness. Doctors were crying when they watched the little patient’s sufferings: except the compression of thorax and lungs the poor girl had the cranio-cerebral trauma with the massive brain impairment. A chief doctor of Lviv specialized pediatric clinic on Chornobyl-related issues Oles’ Myndyuk, a deputy chief Zinoviy Ivaskevych, a chief of the intensive care unit Larysa Vygovska and a chief of the neurologic department Olga Kunta kept vigil over the sick child day and night. Ulyana Lushchyk found out about the girl condition from a TV-program. She immediately contacted Lviv colleagues and went there at Christmas. After applying the method of ultrasound study she revealed a chain of cerebral blood flow disorders. Together with the clinic’s doctors they selected a new scheme of the treatment. And on the first of February Galya whispered “mummy”, “daddy”, “yes” and “no” for the first time. But sight was not recovered.
The little patient was delivered to Kyiv from Lviv, to the center of Ulyana Lushchyk. The child all the time fancied snakes, spiders, and…Olexandr Ponomaryov. Before the tragedy she was a fan of the singer, and partial memories were kept in her mind. Here he is standing in the middle of the room and speaking Spanish…So, to cause “a mild stress” we invited Sashko. He was surprised, but agreed to come in any time. In several days after the meeting with the idol the little patient began to differ shadows of trees and she got a motivation: the singer presented his picture to her and promised to guide around Kyiv if she saw the color of his eyes. “Blue eyes”, said Galya to Ulyana in several months…
Miracles do not happen in medicine
A businessman Vasyl Ivanovych is 41. During five months after he was hit on the head in the entrance the man stayed in a comatose state in the district hospital. Ulyana Bogdanivna explained: There is such a point of view that if a patient stays out of consciousness more than two or three days, the brain cortex gradually dies off. Such a disease is as a rule regarded by doctors as “unpromising”. But the wife insisted on the treatment and demanded to call the best specialists, she carefully watched after her husband. When any hope was lost, doctors of the district hospital phoned in Kyiv…Diagnostics of the brain vessels of the patient based on the method of Lushchyk, MD was very informative. The treatment was prescribed: injections, blockades, and psychotherapy. Since January esculapiuses of the capital city visit the patient. Now he is still weak, easy-tired, but the speech has already recovered. Neurologists, psychologists, and logopedists are working with him.
At age of twenty this patient learnt to count. But due to “Istyna” he found the affair he willingly deals with – tridimensional pictures made of beads is not only his hobby, but a real chance to earn money
When Ulyana Bogdanivna found out that Vasyl Ivanovych loves children very much and has his own three ones, she took a risk and gave him to hold her son (ten months old Vitusik often accompanies his mother in her business trips).
“You can not imagine, I was so surprised when he took the kid by his jumpers by the hand, which stiffly refused to move”, she tells. “I believe that miracles do not happen in medicine. Perhaps, sometimes it can happen as a reward for good deeds. Something really unbelievable happened to Vasyl Ivanovych”.
Today the patient willingly speaks with his rescuers, fights for his health together with them, and looks forward to returning to his usual life…
A patient has to be ready for fighting with a disease
Specialists, who work in “Istyna”, are not afraid of the most exotic diseases even. Every day they face other people’s troubles: vegetative-vascular dystony, migraine, epilepsy, convulsive attacks, tic, hyperkinesis, stroke, neurosis, speech disturbance, psychomotor retardation, encephalopathy… The syndrome of the chronic fatigue gets “a big play” nowadays. Common complaints are depression and hallucinations.
Medical ethic does not allow to disclose a patient’s secret. So, I did not insist on details. I just asked if the treatment was always effective.
“According to an ancient parable”, starts Mrs Ulyana in a roundabout way, “three persons participate in the process of the treatment: a doctor, a patient, and a disease. And everything depends on who the patient will be with. When he is ready to support the doctor and to follow his recommendations, the success is guaranteed”.
By the way, “Istyna” sticks to the strong rule: nobody has the right to humiliate the patient’s or his relatives’ dignity, though patients also have to be tolerant. That is why visitors, who offended a doctor or had any doubts about his professionalism, are even…refused in a further treatment. The members of this young team do not accept hypocrisy and gossip. Here everything is spoken straight out. And every free minute they spend on studying. For an instance, one of the office’s rooms is rearranged to the library. There are several computers with 24-hour access to the internet. All medical news, which are in the electronic net or journal issues, are separated in folders according to themes (either cardiology, obstetrics or pediatry and endocrinology). All colleagues use them.
A present for “Istyna” in token of farewell to the disease and recovering – a sculpted image of a girl done with his own hands
When I was going to leave, a mother with a thin hazel-eyed boy came to the center. The little patient, Volodya of 8 years old was unhopefully diagnosed with the mental retardation. Psychological tests revealed that the development stopped at the age of three. Due to the individual approach of psychologist, logopedist, and parents, who worked with the child hardly applying a special method, results were incredible – in a month he caught up two years of the development…
“Though it can sound trivially, the base of the medicine’s future is still an individual approach,” Ulyana Lushchyk said. “The organism is such a complicated system that it must be viewed in the complex, but not separately – heart, head, hands, legs… That is why the tandem of different fields, at first sight far from one another, is important. To work out a new method one must know vessels’ biomechanical qualities, laws of hydrodynamics, and physics of ultrasound. And it is not necessary to invent something genius. Sometimes well-known remedies are the most effective, though in extraordinary, but scientifically based combinations…”
Olena Synyuta
