Vladimir Vavilov, Kazan Hospice: "We are guides from one world to another"

Doctors of the Kazan Hospice and employees of the charitable foundation named after Anzhela Vavilova conducted a tour for journalists of the Tatarstan mass media and introduced them the work of the Children's Visiting Service.

Representatives of the press and bloggers were able to communicate with doctors and parents of hospice wards, got acquainted with the everyday life of the institution.

"A hospice is a home without pain. Only in Russia they talk about death as "ceased to suffer", and after all, both children and adults should passed away without pain and fear, - said at the meeting Vladimir Vavilov, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation named after Anzhela Vavilova. "We are hospice guides from one world to another." Today, the Kazan Hospice has managed to become one of the best in Europe, he said.

Reference. The hospice was opened as a public-private partnership project between the Angela Vavilova Charitable Foundation and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Tatarstan to help seriously ill people, many of whom are at the last stage of their life. The foundation itself was created in 2003 by Vladimir and Marina Vavilovs in memory of their five-year-old daughter, Angela, who died of cancer. The foundation turns 18 on March 27.  Assistance to seriously ill people is carried out mainly through donations.

The first stage of the hospice in Kazan was opened in 2014. There are children's and adult departments in it. During the work of the institution, more than 2,500 patients were provided with inpatient and on-site care. "The role of the visiting hospice service is great, because it is difficult to provide all those in need with inpatient beds," Marina Gorodilova, head of the outpatient service, stressed at the meeting.  "In total, there are 250 children registered with the field service in the children's department, and we regularly visit all of them at home. It is important that it is possible to achieve high efficiency of work. Two presidential grants made their contribution."

Reference. The project "Development of children's mobile palliative care in the Kazan Hospice" was included in the top 100 projects of the Presidential Grants Fund. Before the grant, the hospice could only provide out-of-home care to 100 young patients, but this list has increased by another 200 people thanks to the grant.

The service's capabilities have also grown significantly. The team included a palliative care doctor, a nurse, a psychologist, a social worker, and a driver. The specialists were trained and began to travel to families on a regular basis, carrying out at least a hundred trips a month.

When asked what difficulties patients have to face, Marina Valentinovna told the media that they "most often are psychological problems."  Such help is needed, for example, by mothers of children with neurological pathologies (cerebral palsy, etc.), when the family is immersed in a serious illness of the child for years. In addition, patients and their relatives often refuse the standard pain relief regimens for cancer, adopted by the World Health Organization, because they are afraid of the word "drugs." We have to talk, explain, added M. Gorodilova.

Telemedicine is very helpful. She notes: "Sometimes there are calls from morning to evening on WhatsApp, the phone makes it possible to solve a lot of issues that do not require a doctor's examination, for example: care, psychological assistance, correction of appointments."

To get help from an on-site or inpatient service, you can call the numbers listed on the hospice's website or write an email. "We take all those in urgent need to be serviced by an on-site service because in many cases people can not wait - the pain is so severe that measures need to be taken urgently," added Marina Gorodilova.

The second hospice on the street of the Battalov Brothers in Kazan is being built by the whole world, with benefactors' money. Currently, work is underway on the installation of window and door openings. The construction is planned to be completed in 2023-2024, but everything will depend on the financial component.

It was launched in connection with the high demand for hospice care in the Republic of Tatarstan because, according to statistics, more than 20 thousand Tatarstan citizens need palliative medical support.  But because of the pandemic, the pace of construction has slowed.

The #116RegionDobra campaign, announced in the fall of 2020 by the Kazan Hospice, continues. It is dedicated to raising funds for the construction of a second hospice in Kazan. If each citizen of Tatarstan transfers only 116 rubles, the amount will be more than 450 million rubles, which will be used for a new hospice's construction and equipment. The Angela Vavilova Foundation conducts the fundraising.

Galiya Khisamova, chief physician of the Kazan Hospice:

"The purpose of the hospice is to relieve the condition of people with severe (incurable) chronic diseases that cannot be cured, as well as to create comfortable conditions for the patient in the hospital and at home when it comes to home visiting service.

In the hospice, we use all the painkillers allowed in the Russian Federation. We also remove undesirable symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting, exhaustion, depressive state.  We strive to improve the quality of the patient's nutrition, using instead of traditional food, we provide meals enriched in proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.

The spiritual component of helping patients and their families is also important. For this purpose, we have two prayer rooms where you can conduct the necessary rites and where spiritual mentors come.

But our goals are not limited to this. We want to increase the number of beds, covering many people in need, by opening a second hospice hospital. Children will remain in the current building, and the adult department will be in the new one.

When the second hospital opens, it depends on the finances and the help of philanthropists. I think it will be 2023-2024."

Marina Gorodilova, head of the Outpatient Hospice Service:

"Fieldwork has been carried out almost from the very foundation of the hospice. About 50 adults and about 250 children are registered with the service. We regularly visit them at home, correcting painful symptoms that the district service does not observe and correct.

Since the financing is carried out at the Angela Vavilova Foundation's expense, we have the opportunity to use expensive drugs. Today we have the best equipment in the entire Republic of Tatarstan with dressings.

In short, the efficiency of our work is high, and patients appreciate it very much. Even in severe cancer patients, tissue healing dynamics are much better against the background of our drugs.

We work comprehensively not only with the patient but also with the whole family. Among children, there are many patients with a neurological profile. These are congenital anomalies, cerebral palsy, etc. In this case, long-term monitoring is often necessary, and a lot of effort has to be invested in mothers' psychological support.

In general, the field service is a very effective and promising form of activity, and it has proven itself brilliantly over the years."

The hospice meeting was organized within the framework of the Publishing House project "Argumenty i Fakty "Russia is Rich in Small Affairs."