Personal experience: how we spent five days in the children's Tushino hospital with a child

Many, alas, know firsthand how bad it can be in medical institutions, but I would like to tell you about how good it can be here.

Maria Dubinskaya, "Novye Izvestia"

Last week my five-year-old child and I were treated at the DGKB named after Z.A. Bashlyaeva DZM (children hospital of the Moscow Department of healthcare system) - people call it simply "Children's Tushino Hospital"; I am sharing with the readers of Novye Izvestia an illustrated story about how and in what conditions we spent these five exciting days. Praise - like criticism - must be justified, so here are just the facts about the possibilities of free medicine in Moscow.

In the children's hospital named after Z.A. Bashlyaeva and before the pandemic with anti-covid calls to "keep distance" there was a strict, truly individual approach: hospitalization takes place through separate reception boxes. You are told the number of the box with your entrance from the street, you go into the room where the hospital employee is waiting for you, who conducts the initial examination, and now the mandatory smear for coronavirus has also been added to the examination.

If adolescents stay in a hospital psychologically is more difficult, then the happiness of young children lies in the fact that they do not quite understand where they are, for them, to one degree or another, everything is fanned by the aura of some kind of game.

And this "playful" atmosphere in the hospital named after Z.A. Bashlyaeva is purposefully supported in every possible way: since the stress from staying in a medical facility can be somehow reduced, then it must be done. And worrying parents, by the way, this is also only good.

Drawings came to the rescue: not only reception boxes, but also part of the corridors are painted according to the stories of fairy tales. The pictures are absolutely amazing - ready-made book illustrations! Thanks for this to the volunteers of the Merry Corridor charity project.

And the lobby of the central hospital building at all resembles the foyer of some hotel.

The main decoration is a snow-white piano. The pianist Anastasia Fomina can often be heard at the Ritz Carlton, but playing music for children and their parents is, of course, much more joyful, because there is an understanding that music heals here. In addition, the lobby is filled with the aroma of coffee and something delicious.

“All this was invented by our chief physician Ismail Magomedovich Osmanov, this is his idea. He really wanted the lobby to smell of coffee and buns, so that there was no such dreary hospital feeling and that the patients would immediately tune in to a positive mood, "Aleksey Evseev and Nikita Illarionov, barista of the Aibolit cafe, decorated like a cozy Parisian corner.

Like all medical institutions, the Tushino Children's Hospital named after Z. A. Bashlyaeva is now working in a special regime, which can be called "stop, coronavirus!" Masks, gloves, antiseptics - all this is here with interest, these are permanent attributes. Every 5-10 meters there are special quartzizers that work around the clock; the number of these units impressed me.

Each ward has its own quartz crystal, nurses carefully monitor the continuous operation of the devices and record the hours worked daily.

The hospital is very clean and tidy everywhere, and our department of pediatric urology and andrology, decorated in violet-pink tones and decorated with pictures of lavender fields and orchids, seemed to me to be exemplary. The cleaning lady came several times a day, threw out the trash, washed the floor and even wiped the mattress covers on the beds. And several times I accidentally witnessed how the head nurse Olga Vyacheslavovna Zuyeva checked the cleanliness in the most inaccessible places.

And this close attention to nuances and care for young patients and their parents is felt in everything here.

For example, in the fact that on the bottles with water in the dining room, explanatory signs are pasted: "boiled water", "raw water". A trifle, but an important one.

And on the ceiling of the long corridor along which the children are taken to the operating room, pictures with frames from the most famous cartoons are pasted, so you can come up with a game with recognizing the characters in order to maintain the most positive mood until the child meets the surgeons.

As for the hospital food, it is completely normal here, there is no reason to be "afraid", as some people like. Yes, the menu is modest, but it has everything you need, delights are not required at all, because this is a medical institution, food should be dietary and healthy. Let's say that my mothers and I, who were in the ward with us, noted that pea soup, borscht and millet porridge are very tasty.

And if you really want something like that, you can always go down to the already mentioned lobby of the central building, to the Aibolit cafe, to Lyosha and Nikita, and order, for example, a Bumblebee cocktail based on coffee and juice, and a slice of cake. Antoise ”with curd mousse and raspberry interlayer. Or, if allowed by the attending physician, please the child with a sausage in the test.

Of course, I would like to tell you separately about the attitude of the medical staff towards patients. We were lucky that we were surrounded not only by professionals, but also by people of a kind soul, which is very, very important, because professionalism can also be “cool”. And the warmth on the part of doctors towards children plays a special role. In general, in such cases they also say that people are "in their place" here, for them this is a vocation.

In our department there were children aged from two months, and there were already quite adult children - 15-17 years old. One of the most common problems is inguinal and umbilical hernias, and there have been diagnoses related to the malformation of the genitals. According to urologist-andrologist Artyom Gagikovich Burkin, head of the department, surgeries in patients with gender defect are among the most difficult and can last up to 6-10 hours.

Even the most meticulous and emotional parents (and I am one of them), who ask questions a hundred times a day and are generally very nervous, and our surgeon Artyom Burkin (by the way, he is a fourth-generation doctor!), And anesthesiologist Olga Vladimirovna Moiseeva, and the nurses always had enough attention and patience; they always explained everything in detail, reassured, encouraged... And as you know, a kind word can also have a beneficial effect on the patient's condition, it is not for nothing that the great Vladimir Bekhterev said: "If the patient does not feel better after talking with the doctor, then this is not a doctor".

Before our discharge, I got into a conversation with one of the mothers, Muscovite Anastasia Shestakova, whose daughter Arina had recently undergone surgery. “At a difficult moment for my life, I was very lucky to meet a wise and sensitive specialist, a guru in his profession - Dr. Burkin. Thank him very much for such professionalism, for unique hands that can cope with even the most difficult operation. I would like to say thank you from the bottom of my heart simply for the fact that you, doctors, once chose such a difficult profession and devoted yourself to this important cause. I believe that doctors not only help people, but save our whole world. I am very grateful to the entire department of the hospital, to all medical workers - for their help, responsiveness, responsibility with which you approach each patient, ”Anastasia noted.

And finally - an important clarification: all treatment was completely free, according to the policy. This is the kind of free medicine in the capital. Isn't it an example for everyone?

Of course, we all understand that the hospital is far from the place where we would like to return, especially if we are talking about a child, but in the evenings, in conversations with parents, no, no, yes, and a playful slipped through: if you get sick, then only here , in "Tushinskaya", named after Z.A. Bashlyaeva.

Meanwhile, as the nurses of our department explained to me, to say "Goodbye!" here it is not accepted, or rather, even categorically prohibited, but it should be the only and only way: "Farewell!"

By the way, some children, and my child too, during their stay at the hospital named after Z.A. Bashlyaeva began to play "doctor". And in general, my son more than once after being discharged told me: "I will grow up and become a doctor to treat babies!" In my opinion, all this is the best characteristic for a hospital.