On Monday, one of the departments of the largest children's hospital in Ukraine "Okhmatdet" was visited by the players of the youth team "Dynamo" Nazar Balaba and Oleksiy Gusev.
They gave gifts from FC Dynamo to the children and talked to them. There were football fans among the children from different departments and parts of Ukraine. They asked a variety of questions to the Dynamo players - both about how they decided to connect their lives with football, and about the sports regime, including diet, because seriously ill children are also forced to follow a special diet.
“Many diseases worsened during the war,” said Valentina Lutsenko, a hospital teacher with more than 25 years of experience. “At the meeting there are children from the Department of Neurology after strokes. Young children, unfortunately, also have strokes. And not only because of the war and the resulting stresses and conditions, various diseases are exacerbated in children, to which psychological problems are added.
There are also children here who have been treated in the toxicology department for years. These are children with kidney failure who are tied to the hemodialysis procedure and are waiting for a kidney transplant. Previously, it was more difficult to organize this, because such operations were carried out only abroad. Now such operations can be done in Ukraine. It’s good that our hospital is working and saving these children.”
From the first day of the war, the hospital received and rescued children and adults with severe injuries and did not stop caring for those who always need this help. Hospital staff, in particular Anastasia Maharramova, press secretary of Okhmatdyt, noted that informal meetings, visits by cultural figures, artists, athletes have a positive effect on the emotional state of children and help them fight serious illnesses.
The children who came to the meeting with the Dynamo players were a little shy at first, but after talking with the football players, everyone had a smile on their faces, and there were gifts from the club in their hands.
Representatives of the hospital took the initiative to continue psychological and emotional rehabilitation and suggested that the club, if the opportunity arises, invite children who are allowed to leave the hospital to visit the training base, show how the teams train and prepare for the games.
“It is good that our football club organizes such meetings. It is very difficult for these children in the hospital. Fortunately, with our visit we can give them positive emotions, bring gifts. Now we see smiles on their faces, and it pleases,” Nazar Balaba shared his emotions after talking with the children.
“In my childhood, I could not even think that a war could ever start, that such terrible things could happen, because of which children are forced to be treated, and at the same time, every time they hide in shelters during air raids, hide from shells. We all hope that in the near future our Armed Forces will win, peace will come to our country and everything will be fine," Aleksey Gusev noted after a visit to the children's hospital.
