MEMPHIS, Tennessee (April 21, 2004) Dr. William M. Novick, Professor of the Paul Nemir, Jr., M.D. Endowed Chair of International Children Health at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, Memphis, is scheduled to speak on Tuesday, April 27 at the United Nations Meeting in New York to commemorate the 18th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. The meeting will feature a special screening of Chernobyl Heart, this year's Academy Award-winning Best Documentary Short Subject. The film by Mariann DeLeo, which documents the effects of radiation on the children of Belarus, features Dr. Novick and the Memphis-based International Children's Heart Foundation.
Dr. Novick, Founder and Medical Director of the International Children's Heart Foundation, has been taking volunteer medical teams to Minsk, Belarus since December 1996, providing operations to children with congenital heart defects. To date, Dr. Novick and his teams have made four trips to Belarus and operated on 89 children. Additional trips to Belarus are planned in May, August and December this year.
Due to the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station explosion in 1986, health professionals are reporting an increase in birth defects in children from this region. The United Nations estimates that about 3-4 million children from the area are suffering from the effects of the explosion. An average of 900 new cases a year of congenital heart defects are turning up that are directly related to the Chernobyl disaster, with about 6000 children already on the waiting list who need operations in Belarus alone, and more than 10,000 in Ukraine.
The International Children's Heart Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing lifesaving surgical care to children with congenital or acquired heart defects in developing countries around the world. For more information about the International Children's Heart Foundation, and how you can help support their efforts, visit www.BabyHeart.org or call 901-869-4243.
