Vasil I. Pasechnik, M.D. 

Director of the Centre for Medical and Social Rehabilitiation of Disabled Children Chernihev, Ukraine

          Vasily Pasechnik, M.D., a 1961 graduate of the Lvov Medical Institute in the Ukraine, is a recognized pediatric specialist and founder/director of the Centre for Medical and Social Rehabilitation of Disabled Children.  The Centre, located about 40 miles east of Chernobyl, was founded in 1996 to help children irradiated by the 1986 explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

          Dr. Pasechnik [pronounced PAS-etch-nik] was among the first to call for emergency measures to protect the children living near the Chernobyl nuclear reactor.  Under the rules of the then-Soviet state, Ukrainian officials initially refused to publicly acknowledge the grave seriousness of the nuclear disaster. 

          Dr. Pasechnik earned the ire of Soviet officials by continuing with other pediatric doctors to call for emergency distribution of potassium iodide. Taking the iodide would help prevent the onset of subsequent thyroid cancer in children exposed to the radiation.

          After discovering that children were playing in highly radioactive areas near the Chernobyl “Dead Zone” in the days following the nuclear explosion, Dr. Pasechnik (at great personal risk) publicly and openly warned Soviet officials of the danger.  As a result of Dr. Pasechnik’s public outcry, the children finally received potassium iodide–unfortunately an entire three full weeks after the accident.   

          Shortly thereafter Dr. Pasechnik was disciplined and removed as the area’s director of pediatrics for publicly disclosing the radiation hazard and allegedly “creating a panic.”

          Multiple thousands of Ukrainian children have since come down with radiation-induced illnesses, including thyroid cancer. In his quest to attend to the special needs of the afflicted children of Chernobyl, Dr. Pasechnik founded the Centre in 1996 after working for several years at another children’s clinic near Chernobyl, and the Centre is today known commonly as “The Ukraine Revival” for its successful work with seriously ill children.   The Centre has received public recognition from medical officials in several countries and was formally dedicated by the British Ambassador to the Ukraine in 1996.

          Once reviled for his public disclosure of the dangers following the accident, Dr. Pasechnik was subsequently recognized and honored for his courage and commitment.  In the late 1980s he was named a Distinguished Doctor of the Ukraine and has since received other formal recognition for his work with the children of Chernobyl.

          The Centre, which is unique in that it provides extensive psychological as well as medical support for children, receives only a quarter of its funding from the Ukrainian government.  Other funding and supplies are provided by international relief agencies.