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| PHÎÒÎ: PHL |
This month Ukraine’s leading scientific institution in research and treatment of ear, nose and throat diseases – the Kolomiychenko Institute of Otolaryngology under the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine – will celebrate its 50th anniversary. Today, the institute has about 700 employees, including one academician, two correspondent members of the Academy of Medical Sciences, 19 doctors of medicine, and 50 specialists with a PhD. The institute has about 60-80 thousand patients a year and performs more than 7,000 operations annually
In the lobby of the Institute of Otolaryngology hangs a portrait of a doctor. The man depicted in the portrait has an intelligent and kind face. He wears a round mirror on his forehead. He is the founder of the institute Oleksiy Kolomiychenko.
Doctors from
the backwoods
Kolomiychenko was born in 1898 in Shpola, now the Cherkasy Oblast. The Kolomiyets-Kolomiychenko family was large and close. The parents of the future scientists were strong middle-class peasants and mainly worked the land. From time to time they hired outside help. They could deal with economic travails and raise ten children. The doctor’s mother Olena taught her children to love knowledge and insisted that they get a good education. The eldest son Mykhailo received 10 rubles from his parents to pay for a trip to Kyiv. He entered the medical department of the St. Volodymyr University in Kyiv. Later, two more brothers, Ivan and Oleksiy, moved to Kyiv. This probably saved their lives because very few children of large families survived during the great famine and repressions in the 1930s.
The elder brother Mykhailo got married and settled down with his wife’s family at 17 Reitarska St. He went on to become a renowned surgeon. During the WWII he was the chief surgeon of the famous 62nd Army commanded by Gen. Vasyl Chuykov, who became famous for the defense of Stalingrad. For decades after the war he headed the general surgery department at the Kyiv Medical University. Oleksiy also settled in the same house on Reitarska. The brothers lived their entire lives next door. After they passed away they were buried opposite one another at the Baikova cemetery. The district hospital in their native Shpola was named in their honor.
Deaf doctor
Oleksiy Kolomiychenko did not go into medicine immediately. He first graduated from a railway institute, then enrolled in the law school of the Kyiv University but entered the medical department a month later. The young Kolomiychenko was a promising student and excelled in studies. His life and career were going quite well and eventually he started up a family. He needed money to continue education. For this, he recalled his first education and got a part-time job as a train conductor. During one of his trips he caught a cold, took medications that were pretty imperfect at that time - and lost his hearing.
This was difficult to imagine what it would mean for a 24-year-old boy who had a love for medicine. “Few people that have a good sense of hearing are aware of how precious such gift is until they lose it”, Kolomiychenko wrote later. He described the feelings of a deaf person as “a feeling of loneliness, isolation from the world, sounds of nature and society.”
Having been diagnosed as deaf, the path to medicine seemed to be closed for him. But deafness was not the end of world. Oleksiy learned to read lips. University professors Stavraki, Puchkovskiy, Spirov, Yanovskiy, Strazhesko and Volkovych supported the deaf student. The scientists saw in him an outstanding colleague and went no wrong. Two years later Kolomiychenko successfully completed his studies and became a doctor.
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| The scientific legacy of Kolomiychenko consists of works dedicated to problems of tumors in the ear, throat and nose, otosclerosis, intracranial complications and the use of ultrasound technology PHÎÒÎ: PHL |
First in the USSR
In 1944, Kolomiychenko headed a department at an institute for continued education of medical workers. He dreamt of returning hearing to people suffering from otosclerosis, the disease that he suffered from. In the mid-1950s, the scientist got carried away by the idea of setting up an institute, where patients with ear, throat and nose diseases could receive treatment by top specialists should work in such an institute. In 1958, Kolomiychenko met American colleague Dr. Samuel Rosen in Leningrad. Rosen risked operating on Kolomiychenko with the hope of returning his hearing. Unfortunately, the operation did not give a positive result.
On June 7, 1960, a decision was approved to establish an institute that Kolomiychenko had dreamed about and construction began soon. Its founder had to combine science with economic activity. Together with other things, he invented instruments and optical devices for future operations. The inventions were made of glass and metal produced at the Arsenal plant in Kyiv.
In 1961, the first operation on otosclerosis in the Soviet Union was performed under a microscope at the Institute of Otolaryngology. The patient, a driver named Zhyvoluy, said after the operation: “Doctor, I can hear you!” Dr Kolomiychenko heard these words through a huge hearing device.
Legacy
In 1964, Kolomiychenko was awarded the Lenin Award in the field of science and technologies for the operation he performed three years prior. The Soviet leadership could not allow a Ukrainian scientist to be awarded before his Moscow colleagues. As soon as a similar operation was performed in Moscow and other republics, all doctors were given awards simultaneously. This, however, did not seem very important as Dr Kolomiychenko, an enthusiastic and inquisitive man, continued to treat patients. He was interested in everything from Indian yoga to operations using a laser beam and new surgical instruments. For years, he edited the scientific publication Journal for Ear, Nose and Throat Diseases.
In the 1970s, he came up with the idea of opening a republican hearing recovery center under the institute. The center was opened in 1978 without Kolomiychenko, who headed the institute until 1974. He retired after passed all his knowledge to his students and passed away the same year.
The scientific legacy of Kolomiychenko consists of works dedicated to problems of tumors in the ear, throat and nose, otosclerosis, intracranial complications and the use of ultrasound technology. The main legacy is the outstanding school of otolaryngology known and valued far beyond the borders of our country.
COMMENTARY
Dr Dmytro Zabolotniy
Director of the Kolomiychenko
Otolaryngology Institute
We have not sent a single patient for treatment abroad for over twenty years. All of our patients received treatment in Ukraine. In fact, people come from abroad to us for treatment and every year their number is growing. Our studies have long gone beyond the limits of otolaryngology and are applied in other fields of medicine. In 1991, we were the first in the Soviet Union to perform the transplantation of an artificial ear. This operation returns hearing to a person that has been deaf since birth. For the time being, this method is practically 100-percent effective for children aged up to 5. At an older age, certain difficulties arise with the synchronization of hearing and speaking. However, if such an operation is performed on time, deaf and dumb children can grow normally. The line for implants is around 500 patients. This year, the Cabinet of Ministers allocated money to pay for 200 artificial ear devices. If this trend continues, many schools for the deaf and dumb children may be shut down as their hearing will be restored.
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