[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 165 (Friday, November 19, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2508-E2509]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        IN COMMENDATION OF THE CHILDREN OF THE WORLD FOUNDATION

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 18, 1999

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I wish to bring to the attention of my 
colleagues an article that appeared in the November 7th New York Times 
entitled ``Little Ambassadors with Hearts in Need of Repair.'' It tells 
the story of two infant children from Siberia who were transported to 
the United States to receive life saving heart surgeries. It also tells 
the story of a remarkable public private partnership between the United 
States and Russia involving our Department of Energy, the Russian 
Ministry of Atomic Energy and the Children of the World Foundation. 
This wonderful organization's Chairman is a great friend of mine: 
William Denis Fugazy of New York. Mr. Fugazy and the Children of the 
World Foundation have not only sponsored these two Siberian infants for 
their emergency medical procedures but five previous children all of 
whom have received vital heart surgeries.
  The heart procedures are being done at the Children's Hospital of the 
Westchester Medical Center of New York. I know all of my colleagues 
join me in wishing these two young infants the best of luck in these 
surgeries and a wonderful life to follow. I also commend the work of 
the Children of the World Foundation which is part of the Forum Club of 
New York which itself brings key business and political leaders 
together.
  I believe that in the New York Times article Bill Fugazy summed up 
the importance of the work of the Children of the World Foundation when 
he said that the medical procedures being performed on these children 
and the ones done previously ``have opened avenues not there before and 
created new friendships.''

                [From the New York Times, Nov. 7, 1999]

            Little Ambassadors With Hearts in Need of Repair

                           (By Elsa Brenner)

       Two Siberian toddlers have arrived in the United States on 
     an adult-size mission: to serve as emissaries of Russia and 
     symbols of an effort to improve relations between the two 
     countries.
       Because they were born with potentially fatal heart defects 
     and faced limited prospects for reaching adulthood in Russia, 
     Sophia Ovchinnikova and Sergei Yurinski are at the 
     Westchester Medical Center here to undergo surgery not 
     available in Russia.
       Some political and business leaders are want the two 
     babies, handpicked from among thousands of others suffering 
     from congenital heart defects in Russia, will serve as 
     symbols of healing between nations--particular in the area of 
     nuclear disarmament.
       ``The children show the real human side of the work we're 
     doing in Russia's nuclear cities,'' Energy Secretary Bill 
     Richardson said last week. ``Everyone--Russians and 
     Americans--want what's best for kids.''
       The United States Department of Energy has been working in 
     the remote Siberian regions of Tomsk, where Sophia lives, and 
     Krasnoyarsk, Sergei's home on a nonproliferation program 
     aimed at reducing the availability of nuclear material for 
     weapons.
       Sophia, 13 months old, and Sergei, 22 months old, arrived 
     at Kennedy International Airport on Oct. 6 to a red-carpet 
     welcome and were taken with their mothers to the Children's 
     Hospital of the 1,100-bed Westchester Medical Center. A 
     motorcade including the New York City Police and Fire 
     Departments, the Westchester County police and dignitaries 
     and businessmen, accompanied them. Those present included 
     Kirill Speransky, senior counselor of the Russian Mission to 
     the United Nations, Edward Mastal, director of the Highly 
     Enriched Uranium Transparency Program of the United States 
     Department of Energy, and Edward A. Stolzenberg, president 
     and chief executive officer of the Westchester Medical 
     Center.
       The children's visit is sponsored by the Forum Club's 
     Children of the World Foundation, a New York-based 
     organization established by William Denis Fugazy, a limousine 
     magnate and lobbyist, to give ailing youngsters in different 
     parts of the world access to the most advanced medical 
     techniques. The Forum Club, an organization of business and 
     civic leaders, counts among its members Lee A. Iaccoca, the 
     former chairman of the Chrysler Corporation.
       The Siberian babies are the sixth and seventh to receive 
     heart surgery in the United States under the sponsorship of 
     Mr. Fugazy's foundation, which was formed last year.
       Both Mr. Fugazy and Secretary Richardson said that because 
     of the mutual humanitarian, economic and political benefits 
     to both sides, American offers of medical assistance have 
     been well received. The United States selected the two 
     Russian children through the medical department of the 
     Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy.
       In many cases, care at American hospitals specializing in 
     pediatric heart surgery is the only opportunity for sick 
     children like Sophia and Sergei to live normal lives, said 
     Dr.

[[Page E2509]]

     Lester C. Permut, the surgeon in charge of Sophia and 
     Sergei's cases. The Westchester Medical Center is providing 
     its services without charge to the children's families.
       Dr. Permut said that Sophia and Sergei suffer from two of 
     the most common heart disorders in children and that in the 
     United States, the prognosis for such cases is excellent; a 
     95 percent survival rate after surgery.
       ``In this country, we consider these kinds of pediatric 
     heart surgeries very routine operations,'' he said.
       But in Russia, children having surgery to correct 
     congenital heart defects have only a 5 percent chance of 
     survival because advanced pediatric heart care is not 
     available there. As Olga Victorovna Ovchionikova, Sophia's 
     mother, explained through an interpreter: ``I was told my 
     child could have surgery in Novosibirsk, but that it was 
     highly experimental and there were no guarantees. Then we 
     heard about this. It was like a miracle.''
       It is the first time that the Children's Hospital at the 
     Westchester Medical Center--one of only about 10 hospitals in 
     the state licensed for pediatric heart surgery--is taking 
     part in the Children's Foundation program. More than 100 
     children each day are cared for at the center here, which has 
     the region's only pediatric intensive care and neonatal 
     intensive care centers. Next year, the Medical Center plans 
     to complete construction of its new 257,500-square-foot, 
     four-story Children's Hospital.
       At the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York 
     earlier this year, Anton Kozhedub, 3, of Ukraine and Maria 
     Lucia Miller and Merolyn Roario, infants from the Dominican 
     Republic, underwent heart surgery. Mr. Fugazy said those 
     medical procedures, like the others that have been performed, 
     ``have opened avenues not there before and created new 
     friendships.''
       In particular, Police Commissioner Howard Safir of New York 
     City and law enforcement officials from the Dominican 
     Republic have since exchanged information that has aided in 
     arresting criminals. And pharmaceutical companies are 
     exploring new business venues in the Dominican Republic. 
     Also, George Steinbrenner, the principal owner of the 
     Yankees, helped finance a hospital in the Dominican Republic, 
     a country that is a rich source for American baseball teams.
       In the latest partnership with Siberia, the most immediate 
     and palpable gain is Sergei's speedy recovery. A hole in his 
     heart has been repaired and he is making satisfactory 
     progress, Carin Grossman, a hospital spokeswoman, said.
       Dr. Permut, who performs about 150 open-heart procedures a 
     year, explained that the wall that should have formed between 
     the lower left and right chambers of Sergei's heart did not 
     completely close when Sergei was in the womb--resulting in an 
     abnormal blood flow and increased pressure in the artery that 
     goes through his lungs.
       Before the operation, the blood pressure in the artery to 
     Sergei's lungs was the same as that in his aorta, when it 
     should have been one-fourth of the pressure. It has, however, 
     finally begun to drop, but not to the level it should be.
       Under ideal circumstances, the surgery should have been 
     performed before Sergei reached 6 months. ``It is already 
     late to start fixing the problem,'' Dr. Permut said.
       Sergei's lungs have suffered, although the damage is 
     probably reversible, Dr. Permut said. Without the surgery, or 
     a heart-lung transplant later on, Sergei would have lived 
     only into his teenage years or perhaps until he was 20.
       In contrast, Sophia is undergoing a correction of a hole 
     between the two upper chambers of her heart at precisely the 
     correct time in her life, Dr. Permut said. Her medical 
     problem is less complex than Sergei's, although the mitral 
     valve in her heart needs to be repaired as well. Without 
     surgery, she might not have lived past her 20's, he said.
       In interviews last week, Sophia's mother, Mrs. 
     Ovchinnikova, and Sergei's mother, Yulia Sergeevna 
     Yurinskaya, said they had been overwhelmed by the kindness 
     New Yorkers have shown to them and their children.
       ``They've treated us like family,'' Mrs. Yurinskaya, a 
     housekeeper at a Siberian factory said, speaking through Dr. 
     Gregory Rozenblit, a director of the department that performs 
     angioplasties at the Medical Center. Sergei's bed is littered 
     with toy trucks and other presents from well-wishers.
       Mrs. Yurinskaya is able to talk by phone every day to her 
     husband Mikhail, who also works in a factory in Siberia, and 
     to her parents and inlaws. ``They were very worried about the 
     baby, and at first they were crying because everything was so 
     bad. But now they are crying because they're so happy.''
       Sophia lives with her mother, aunts and grandmother in a 
     small town in Siberia. Ms. Ovchinnikova, a single mother who 
     works as a housekeeper in a gym, said she talks to her 
     relatives only about once a week at a pre-arranged time and 
     place from the United States, because there is no phone in 
     their apartment in Siberia.
       When they do talk (the news from Siberia is that the snow 
     has already begun to fall) the women discuss their new hopes 
     for Sophia and changing relations between the two countries.
       ``We can't believe what is happening,'' Ms. Ovchinnikova 
     said, ``that after all these years of cold war tensions, 
     there is now so much friendliness.''
       Sophia is awaiting surgery, and since their arrival in the 
     United States, Sophia and her mother have lived in a small 
     apartment here provided by the hospital, so that Sophia can 
     recuperate from a cold and ear infection.

     

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