BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

25/10/2008

Belarus doctor on educational trip to Windsor

BY DAVID PERSONS

Dr. Galina Karalenka knew early on in life that she wanted to be doctor.

When she was a young girl, she became very ill.

Her family, which lived in Belarus, a part of the former USSR, took her to a hospital.

"I was very, very sick," Karalenka said on Monday morning while visiting Dr. Robert Bradley's office at the Medical Arts Centre of Windsor.

"I had a high temperature and some complications from the flu. I had heart problems and kidney problems."

Despite the seriousness of her health issues, Karalenka eventually responded to treatment, improved and went home.

The treatment she received so impressed her that she became committed to becoming a doctor so she could help others.

Today, 44-year-old Karalenka is the head of endocrinology at a large hospital in Minsk, Belarus. She is visiting Bradley and other doctors in Northern Colorado as part of the Colorado/Chernobyl Health Alliance program. The alliance was formed to allow Belarusian medical and dental professionals to visit Colorado for short-term observations and health education.

That knowledge is taken back home to Belarus to help treat thousands of citizens still suffering from the effects of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident.

Belarus borders Ukraine and is close to Chernobyl - about 300 kilometers. After the power plant explosion, Belarus is said to have received 60 percent of the radioactive contamination that fell.

Karalenka, who primarily works with diabetics, says the radiation problem today is especially evident in children who develop thyroid cancer.

"It's a very big problem," Karalenka admitted. "All our people are scared of cancer."

Karalenka said she has learned a lot by watching how U.S. doctors not only treat their patients but how they approach them.

Bradley agreed, saying that approach is the single biggest difference in how the two countries treat their patients.

"What impressed her a lot, I believe, is the attention to preventive health care," Bradley said. "We do a total body exam and a lot of patient education. They have no family physicians. They pretty much focus on acute care and referrals to specialists.

"What also impresses her is our routine physicals."

Bradley, who has been a part of the Colorado/Chernobyl Health Alliance program for five years, said he intends to take part in the program for a number of years because of the good it does.

Source:

http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081025/WINDSORBEACON01/810250307/1131

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