'The risk was worth taking,' says Adi Roche as surgeons save lives of 30 children in Ukraine
One-month-old Daria after surgery with her mother. Daria is one of the 30 children in Ukraine who have been saved by surgeons who performed cardiac surgery recently despite the imminent threat of war in the region.
Irish charity boss Adi Roche says sending a surgical team into Ukraine despite the looming threat of invasion and war was worth the risk because the lives of 30 children have been saved.
Ms Roche, the founder and voluntary CEO of Chernobyl Children International (CCI), confirmed that the CCI-funded cardiac surgical team left Ukraine within the last 24 hours following the successful conclusion of their latest life-saving cardiac surgery mission.
“We have to go above and beyond the geopolitical situation, especially when it’s the lives of children and babies at risk - children and babies who will die were it not for our intervention,” Ms Roche said.
“The risk was worth taking. We cannot allow lives to be lost because of politics.
“The surgeons gave these children the greatest gift of all for Valentine’s day - they healed broken hearts, they gave the gift of life. These surgeons ran the gauntlet to make miracles happen.”
Against rising political tensions between Russia and Ukraine, with thousands of troops massing on the borders, Ms Roche said the charity made a calculated decision to bring forward by five months its mission to send a surgical team into Ukraine to perform life-saving operations on children who are suffering from a range of heart defects, including the condition ‘Chernobyl heart’.
The team was there just before Christmas. This latest mission, codenamed Operation Valentine, was mounted following close liaison with CCI’s staff and diplomatic contacts in Ukraine and Belarus.
Ms Roche said they knew there were risks involved in staging the mission at this time. The risks increased over the weekend as the Department of Foreign Affairs updated its guidance to Irish citizens in Ukraine, advising them to leave immediately.
The department has said around 50 Irish citizens have registered with their embassy in Kyiv. However, Ms Roche insisted that the CCI team assessed the situation and concluded that it was extremely important to continue the work it has been doing in Ukraine for the past 20 years.
“The safety of our team is of the utmost importance to us, however, we cannot turn our backs on the children who so desperately need these operations as they cannot live with their condition, but would die with it, were it not for our intervention,” she said.
“Our cardiac team decided to once again run the gauntlet to deliver these life-saving operations to children who urgently need our help.”
Renowned cardiac surgeon, Dr William Novick, led the mission of international surgeons.
“History has a habit of repeating itself, but I didn't expect the repetition so quickly,” he said. “Once again we find the threat of conflict descending upon Ukraine. We remained focused on our mission, and thankfully, the operations were carried out as normal, for now.
“It is thanks to Adi Roche’s CCI and Irish donations that we can be there to perform these life-saving surgeries.”
CCI has been at the forefront of the international humanitarian response to the fall-out of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster almost 36 years ago.
The heart is one of the organs most vulnerable to the effects of radiation, and every year thousands of children in Ukraine and Belarus are born with life-threatening genetic heart diseases and defects, including the so-called Chernobyl heart condition.
