Name: Yulia Klymyshyn
Age: 29
Education: Bogomolets National Medical University.
Profession: Pediatrician.
Did you know? She likes salsa and ballroom dancing.
Yulia Klymyshyn is only 29 but thousands of children owe their lives to her. As a doctor, Klymyshyn cures children at the Department of Reconstructive Surgery and Infraction Pathology of Kyiv’s Center of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery.
Patients are sometimes frightened by her youth. “Sometimes when parents learn that I will treat their children they ask for an older doctor, but when I start working they begin to trust me,” she says, smiling.
Her schedule is busy. Klymyshyn works 12 hours a day, sometimes even on weekends, but it does not disappoint her. “I like the fact my profession brings good to people. The grateful eyes of children and their parents inspire me to move forward,” she says.
Klymyshyn’s professional choice was more likely a happy coincidence.
She was born in the Ternopil Oblast city of Monastyrysk to a family of economists. None of her relatives had anything to do with medicine.
“When I was studying at high school I accidentally got into my hands the book of (Mykola) Amosov. It was extremely interesting and inspired me to become a doctor,” Klymyshyn said.
Amosov (1913-2002) was a World War II veteran and famous heart surgeon during Soviet times who worked in Kyiv starting in 1952. He is credited for his inventions of several surgical procedures for treating heart defects. The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine established the Mykola Amosov Prize, awarded for significant scientific works in the field of the cardio-vascular surgery and transplantology.
Klymyshyn graduated from Bogomolets National Medical University in 2010; four years later she started her Ph.D. studies. “I am very happy with my job. It stimulates me to constantly learn something new,” she says.
Her regular day starts at 8 a.m. Klymyshyn makes ultrasound diagnoses. In the past four years, she’s checked more than 10,000 patients. Some cases stand out. “I will never forget an 8-year-old girl who came for a regular examination after a surgery. When I saw in the ultrasound that the infection perforated a hole in her heart I was shocked,” she says. But the story has a happy ending: The girl is cured.
In the afternoons, Klymyshyn treats children with different heart diseases. Sometimes the treatment and post-operational supervision may last several years. “When you start curing patients after some time you get used to them and they become close people for you,” Klymyshyn says.
She dreams of becoming a serious scientist and a professional cardiologist to help as many people as she can – just like her idol Amosov.
