Age: 28
Education: Donetsk National Medical University
Profession: Pediatric cardiologist
Did you know? During his student years, Shypov played drums in the university jazz orchestra.
For Danylo Shypov, saving children’s lives is not a feat, it’s his daily routine.
As a pediatric cardiologist, Shypov is a member of one of the most professional medical teams in Ukraine — cardiologists, heart surgeons, and anesthesiologists — at Kyiv’s Center for Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery.
Over the past 15 years, more than 8,000 kids with severe heart defects have been treated there and given a chance to live a normal life.
Shypov has already been working there for six years and conducted hundreds of consultations and heart ultrasound examinations. But what is most important is a chance to get experience from the center’s eminent doctors.
“I am inspired by my colleagues and I am lucky that I learn from the best specialists,” says Shypov. On average, every cardiologist at the center treats from 1,000 to 1,200 patients per year.
Before joining the 60-member team in Kyiv, Shypov studied medicine in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk. He wanted to stay in Donetsk and work at a local cardiology center, but the plan fell through when Russia started its war in the eastern Donbas region in 2014. Like many doctors, Shypov left. “No one from whom I could learn the profession stayed in Donetsk,” says the cardiologist.
Shypov’s desire to study medicine started early. He grew up in a family with pediatricians and therapists.
“I am a doctor in the third generation,” he says. He is is especially proud of his 79-year old grandfather, a microbiologist who still teaches students at a university in Donetsk. His grandfather opted to stay because he couldn’t bear leaving his friends and work behind.
When Shypov was a kid, he took up the unusual hobby of “drawing bacteria” after his grandfather started taking him to the university where he worked and showing how to use a microscope. “When you are surrounded by such an atmosphere from an early age, then there’s one road in life — to medicine,” says Shypov.
After moving to Kyiv, Shypov was surprised by how far Ukraine and the center he works at now have progressed in treating kids with difficult heart diseases.
For instance, three decades ago, babies born with transposition of the great arteries had no chance to survive.
“Now this defect is fixed in our center with 1.5% and lower mortality rate,” says Shypov. “It’s fantastic.”
Moreover, Shypov says the center’s prenatal program are able to children with severe heart defects while still in the womb and repair them right after birth.
Despite all problems in health care in Ukraine and the fact that doctors’ work is often undervalued here, Shypov is happy about his professional life and the country. He’s never thought of moving anywhere else.
“I’m a patriot and I want to do my best here,” he says.
