Stanford Doctor Helps Children With Cancer Evacuate Ukraine, Get Care They Need – NBC Bay Area

A Stanford doctor is back in the Bay Area after helping Ukrainian children with cancer escape the war zone and receive the care they need at a US hospital.

dr. Paul Wise, Richard Behrman Professor of Child Health and Society at Stanford University, helped four children with cancer flee Ukraine to get the critical care they need.

“Not only are they in the midst of treatment for very serious childhood illnesses, but they are literally leaving facilities, leaving their homes, being displaced,” Wise said.

The young patients and their families left Poland on a foreign ministry jet. The patients were then taken to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee.

“I had the privilege of being part of the first evacuation of children from Ukraine to the United States,” Wise said.

Wise worked on logistics and security in Poland to make sure the children arrived safely.

The effort was part of the Safer Ukraine initiative on St. Jude Global.

So far, the emergency program has helped evacuate nearly 700 children with cancer from Ukraine.

Despite the success of the program, doctors are still struggling to treat hundreds of other children with cancer who remain in Ukraine.

“They work under very difficult conditions,” Wise said. “Lviv has been hit by missiles and air strikes and they continue to receive children from all over Ukraine.”

Wise is already planning to return to Poland to help more children.

“The strength and resilience of these families and children is simply remarkable and should never be forgotten,” he said.