Families of Ukraine children with cancer cried tears of joy following their arrival in the United Kingdom, according to a Southampton doctor who is supporting a mercy mission to bring the sick kids to Great Britain for their treatment.
The children they flew in from the war-torn country range in age from babies to teenagers. They were all being treated for cancer in hospitals across Ukraine when the Russian onslaught began.
According to the U.K. government website, doctors at University Hospitals Southampton received a phone call soon after and were asked to fly 21 children with cancer, who needed treatment, to the U.K. from the Ukraine-Poland border. The British doctors were more than glad to help them knowing the difficulty of the situation in Ukraine at the moment.
U.K. hospitals team up for mercy mission to Ukraine border
University Hospitals Southampton quickly went to work after receiving that initial phone call, assembling a team of nine doctors, nurses, and critical care technicians and providing them with the necessary kit and equipment.
They also got some help from Birmingham Children's Hospital, which provided an oncologist to deliver specific cancer information to those on the ground. Translators also joined the team to help the doctors communicate with the Ukrainian families.
Dr. Michael Griksaitis, among the medics helping with the mission, told ITV News that the Ukrainian children and parents they brought in were "utterly traumatized." Griksaitis, a consultant in pediatric care, added that the families would need an awful lot more support apart from the cancer care they will give to the children.
Griksaitis said that the families looked tired and terrified when they first got on the plane. According to Griksaitis, the language barrier was a problem for the Ukrainian families as they did not know what was going on.
He said the children started to smile when the doctors got to talk to them and deliver clinical care. What made the trip worthwhile, according to Griksaitis, was the look of relief in the parents' eyes.
"They knew their children were going to be safe and that their children were going to have a chance at surviving this cancer now, which they wouldn't never have had if they had stayed where they were," said Griksaitis.
Ukraine families had tears of joy upon arrival in the U.K.
Griksaitis said that when the plane hit the ground in the U.K., the families on board had tears of joy. He added that moving 21 sick children was a daunting task as they usually provide pediatric intensive care transport on a single patient basis. However, there was no hesitation for them to accept this challenge and bring the children in from Poland.
Griksaitis noted the keyword of their mission was "unknown" as they only found what children they were picking up and how sick they were when they landed in Poland, the BBC News reported. The group flew out on Sunday morning to collect the children and their families and flew back to the U.K. on the same day.
He added that the "mission was incredibly successful and incredibly rewarding." A triage service was provided to the Ukrainian children while they were on the plane, and they have now been distributed across various hospitals across Great Britain, based on the type of cancers they have.
