Two pediatric cancer patients displaced by the war in Ukraine are being brought to Toronto to be treated at The Hospital for Sick Children, with one official calling the effort “one of the most complex logistical challenges” the hospital has faced.
SickKids President and CEO Dr. Ronald Cohn says that the children and their families are scheduled to arrive at the hospital in the next 24 to 36 hours, by way of Poland.
The non-governmental organization Aman Lara, which was established last summer to help evacuate Afghans fleeing the Taliban, is overseeing the transportation of the children. Meanwhile, Bristol Gate Capital Partners CEO Richard Hamm is personally donating the $200,000 bill to fly them here.
Cohn said that SickKids does have capacity in its oncology ward to take upwards of 10 to 15 total patients and remains in “active conversations” with medical officials in Poland about that possibility.
Aman Lara has also launched a fundraising campaign, with hopes of raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for additional flights.
“I think this is maybe one of the most complex logistical challenges that we have faced so far here at SickKids. As you can imagine you have to, on one hand, identify patients and families who are able to travel to Toronto. At the same time, in parallel you have to ensure that we have a transport mechanism for these patients from Poland, to an airport to Toronto and we have to have immigration papers in hand in order for the families to enter Canada,” Cohn told reporters during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. “On top of this, we have to we have to make sure that we work with our community partners to ensure that once the families that are here, in addition to the medical care that we provide here at SickKids, we have opportunities to provide support for families within the community and all of this happens in the context of many, many patients and families crossing the border from Ukraine into Poland.”
Nearly 3 million people have fled Ukraine
The United Nations has estimated that approximately 2.8 million people have fled Ukraine since the war broke out, many of them crossing the Poland-Ukraine border.
Cohn described the effort to bring patients displaced by the war to Canada as “highly fluid,” noting that it has sometimes changed on an “hourly basis.”
But he said that the hospital is committed to doing what it can to help in light of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and has also reached out to other Canadian children’s hospitals with oncology wards.
“It is inconceivable for any of us to begin to think what these families and children have been going through,” Cohn said.
Cohn said that SickKids officials do expect to receive “a bit of documentation” on the patients it will be treating but may not have complete medical histories, given the circumstances.
He said that it is also likely that the patients and their families will require other supports after being forced to flee their country amid persistent Russian shelling.
“We clearly have a long term view on how we're supporting the children and the families, not just for the first couple of weeks until we know how to treat (them) and how to continue treatment but really on a longer, longer phase because some of these treatments also require weeks and months of treatment,” he said.
Last week a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol was hit by a Russian airstrike. Ukrainian officials have said that 17 people were wounded in the attack.
