Chelyabinsk Federal Cardiac Center, Ural Federal District
SHINING BRIGHTLY On February 15, 2013, Chelyabinsk experienced the event that brought world attention to the city – the descent of a meteorite. The fireball that descended on the town and its environs glowed 30 times brighter than the sun, with multiple explosions and long vapor trails that could be seen hundreds of miles away. Fragments of the meteor landed in many of the region’s lakes. Little pieces of the meteor can be bought at various tourist shops around the city, and a large fragment can be viewed on display at the Chelyabinsk Museum of Regional Studies (shown above). We loved hearing our colleagues at the CFCC share their firsthand experiences of being in Chelyabinsk when the meteor hit!
With over one million residents, Chelyabinsk is the seventh largest city in Russia. This industrial city is located over 1,000 miles from Moscow, near the Ural mountain range, the geographical divide between the continents of Europe and Asia. Chelyabinsk was originally founded as a fortress in the 1730s, and transformed into a hub for transport and trade in the late 19th century. During World War II, a large part of Soviet manufacturing was relocated to Chelyabinsk, bringing new industries and thousands of workers. Today, Chelyabinsk remains an industrial city, but is also known for its development of world class hockey players, and growing banking, insurance, and tourism industries.
Self-sustaining pediatric site: our sixth
Area served: 702,106 square miles
Population served: 12 million
Beginning of collaboration: 2015
Self-sustainability reached: 2019
First team of specialists trained: 50
Children saved to date: 1,400+
The establishment of the Chelyabinsk Federal Cardiac Center (CFCC) was part of a recent Russian federal initiative to advance cardiac medicine and neonatology nationwide. The CFCC serves as a major referral center for heart patients living in the Ural Federal District and beyond.
On our launch surgical-educational mission to the CFCC in 2015, Heart to Heart’s focus was on teaching and training our Russian colleagues to surgically treat their backlog of patients with valvular disease. More than 100 cardiac specialists from all across Russia traveled to Chelyabinsk to participate. These included dozens of doctors and nurses from several hospitals within the Ural Federal District, as well as specialists from many other districts – some traveling as far as 1,500 miles.
Over the course of our collaboration, Heart to Heart has sent both pediatric and adult teams on training missions to the CFCC. Many of our colleagues from St. Petersburg, Samara, Tomsk, Rostov-on-Don, and Kaliningrad traveled to observe the work of our medical volunteers during these missions.
Heart to Heart was thrilled to collaborate at this heartland site serving the more than 1,500 children born with CHD in the area annually. We are so proud that our CFCC medical colleagues have gained the expertise to perform newborn heart surgery — the gold standard in pediatric cardiac medicine.
Articles, Photos, Videos, and Interviews
Trip Report: Second surgical-educational mission to Chelyabinsk (2016)
Blog: The right surgery – at the right time (2016)
Patient Narrative: Sofya (2016)
Patient Narrative: Vitaliy (2016)
Trip Report: First surgical-educational mission to Chelyabinsk (2015)
Video: Leeza’s Story (2015)
Video: New Site Launch: Chelyabinsk (2015)
Video: Meet Olga: Mother of a 4-year-old with a heart defect (2015)
Blog: Getting Started in Chelyabinsk (2015)
Video: First surgical-educational mission to Chelyabinsk (2015)