Biography and episodes of life Doctor Lisa. When born and died Elizaveta Glinka, memorable places and dates important events her life. Doctor Quotes, Photo and video.
Years of life of Elizaveta Glinka:
born February 20, 1962, died December 25, 2016
Epitaph
“Give me, hope, your hand,
let's go beyond the invisible ridge,
to where the stars shine
in my soul as in heaven.
…
Bury me in me
From the heat of the worldly desert
And pave the way into the depths,
Where the depths are blue like the sky.”
Juan Ramon Jimenez
Biography of Doctor Lisa (Glinka)
Elizaveta Glinka, known to many Russians as Doctor Lisa, is a doctor, public figure, a human rights activist and philanthropist, whom a huge number of people perceived as nothing less than an angel of mercy. And indeed, the entire biography of Doctor Lisa is life saving story or at least attempts to make them more portable. But there were also those who more than sharply criticized Doctor Lisa and her methods.
Immediately after receiving her first medical education, Elizaveta Glinka followed her husband and moved to live in the USA. There she mastered a second specialization, which gave her start charitable activities: “palliative medicine”. That is, caring for those whose condition cannot really be improved. She worked in hospices in Moscow and Kyiv, and then organized her own charitable foundation to help the hopelessly ill.
Gradually, Glinka’s sphere of activity expanded: Doctor Lisa Foundation arranged a giveaway free food and heating points for the homeless, provided medical care to the poor, and held fundraising events for victims of natural disasters.
Doctor Lisa transports children from Donetsk in 2014.
Stormy criticism of Elizaveta Glinka sounded during the conflict that flared up in Ukraine in 2014. armed conflict. Dr. Lisa clearly formulated her position: to help those who need it, regardless of any political reasons or circumstances. Through her efforts, supplies of humanitarian and medical supplies to both sides were established, and dozens of seriously ill children were removed from dangerous territory.
Glinka was reproached for her indiscriminateness, for helping the “wrong” people herself. accepts help from dubious sources. To this, Doctor Lisa could only answer one thing: I will do good to the best of my ability and with everyone accessible ways. Moreover, Elizabeth was sure that, by helping to correct evil, she was, in a sense, disrupting the given world order, the natural course of things, and therefore had to pay for it. AND she was ready to pay: to hear accusations and curses addressed to her - but to continue the work by which she lived. After the conflict in Ukraine, the war in Syria began, and Doctor Lisa repeatedly flew there on humanitarian missions.
Elizaveta Glinka died tragically - like the other 91 people on board the victim Tu-154 plane crash, heading to Syria. Doctor Lisa was bringing a batch of medicines there.
Doctor Lisa at the ceremony of presenting her with the State Prize for outstanding achievements in the field of human rights activities December 8, 2016
Life line
February 20, 1962 Date of birth of Elizaveta Petrovna Glinka (Doctor Lisa).
1986 Graduated from the Moscow Medical Institute named after. N.I. Pirogov, specializing in pediatric resuscitation and anesthesiology. Emigration to the USA.
1991 Obtaining a second higher medical education in the specialty “palliative medicine” in the USA.
1999 Founding of the first hospice at the Oncological Hospital in Kyiv.
2007 Foundation of a charitable foundation in Moscow Fair help».
2007 Elizaveta Glinka is a member of the Russian Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights.
2012 Awarding Elizaveta Glinka with the Order of Friendship.
2016 Awarding the State Prize to Elizaveta Glinka Russian Federation for outstanding achievements in the field of human rights activities.
December 25, 2016 Date of death of Elizaveta Glinka.
Memorable places
1. 2nd Moscow State Medical Institute named after. N.I. Pirogov, who graduated from Elizaveta Glinka.
2. Dartmouth College (USA), at whose medical school Elizaveta Glinka received a second degree medical education.
3. The first Moscow hospice, in whose work Elizaveta Glinka participated.
4. Kyiv, where Elizaveta Glinka lived and worked for several years.
5. Syria, which Elizaveta Glinka repeatedly visited on humanitarian missions.
6. Sochi, near which a plane crash occurred that claimed the life of Elizaveta Glinka.
Elizaveta Glinka during an interview with Snob magazine in 2014.
Episodes of life
During the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, Elizaveta Glinka personally transported injured children from Donetsk in an ambulance during active hostilities.
In 2014, Elizaveta Glinka took first place in the ranking of “100 most promising politicians after the autumn regional elections"(ISEPI version). In the same year, Glinka took 26th place in the ranking of “100 most influential women Russia" magazine "Ogonyok".
The film “Doctor Lisa” (director – Elena Pogrebizhskaya), received the “TEFI-2009” award as the best documentary
Testaments
"Help specific people in distress, regardless of their beliefs, political affiliation, regardless of whether they are criminals or not, regardless of anything, simply because they are PEOPLE - that is the task of a charity organization.”
"I don't do any political career. I am outside politics, I am not a member of any party... My foundation is ready to accept help from everyone who can and wants to provide it. If my critics want to give it to me, I will be glad. But for now, instead of these morally impeccable people, flawed ones are helping me... And I am sincerely grateful to them.”
“...I was taught that charity must first of all be effective. Therefore, if I set a task to save children, I use all means and possibilities, create an algorithm and solve it. And if you have to risk your life to save children, I’m ready for it.”
“We are never sure that we will come back alive, because war is hell on earth, and I know what I’m talking about. But we are confident that kindness, compassion and mercy work stronger than any weapon.”
Condolences
“It’s terrible and difficult that such energetic and bright people are taken away from us. After this, such a big gap remains... And so many abandoned, disadvantaged people to whom she gave care, participation and hope.”
Ekaterina Chistyakova, director of the Gift of Life charity foundation
“I don’t know how to convey the depth of my compassion to the families of the victims. There are no words except those that have long set the teeth on edge. And no words can calm such grief. Sometimes they say that no people are irreplaceable. It is not true. Every person is irreplaceable. And even more so for someone like Elizaveta Glinka. Without it, Russia became poorer.”
Vladimir Pozner, journalist and TV presenter
“She was ready to pay with her life for what she thought was right. And she paid. All disputes are in the past. Everlasting memory!"
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, politician
The famous Doctor Lisa (Elizaveta Glinka) died in the plane crash of the Tu-154 airliner near Sochi.
The famous Elizaveta Glinka, known to many as Doctor Lisa, was there.
Until recently, her work colleagues refused to believe that Elizabeth was on board and was flying on that ill-fated flight to Syria. However sad news: Doctor Lisa is no more.
She was the head of the Fair Help charity foundation, a palliative medicine doctor, a philanthropist, a well-known public figure, and a board member of the Vera hospice fund.
Sick children simply called her: “Doctor Lisa.” This brave woman endured many from whistling bullets in the Donbass. She helped many in Syria. She solved the problems of sick people, placing them in the best clinics in Moscow and St. Petersburg. She did not know how and could not refuse, she helped everyone for free...
Doctor Lisa (Elizaveta Glinka)
Elizaveta Petrovna Glinka born on February 20, 1962 in Moscow in the family of a military man and a nutritionist, cook and famous TV presenter Galina Ivanovna Poskrebysheva.
In addition to Lisa and her brother, their family also included two cousins who were orphaned at an early age.
In 1986 she graduated from the 2nd Moscow State Medical Institute named after. N.I. Pirogova, specializing in pediatric resuscitation and anesthesiology. In the same year, she emigrated to the United States with her husband, American lawyer of Russian origin Gleb Glebovich Glinka.
In 1991, she received her second medical degree in palliative medicine from Dartmouth Medical School, Dartmouth College. She had American citizenship. While living in America, I became acquainted with the work of hospices, spending five years with them.
She participated in the work of the First Moscow Hospice, then together with her husband she moved to Ukraine for two years.
In 1999, in Kyiv, she founded the first hospice at the Kyiv Oncological Hospital. Member of the board of the Vera Hospice Foundation. Founder and President of the American Foundation VALE Hospice International.
In 2007, she founded the “Fair Help” charitable foundation in Moscow, sponsored by the “Fair Russia” party. The foundation provides financial support and medical care to dying cancer patients, low-income non-cancer patients, and the homeless. Every week, volunteers go to Paveletsky Station, distribute food and medicine to the homeless, and also provide them with free legal and medical assistance.
According to a 2012 report, on average about 200 people per year were sent by the foundation to hospitals in Moscow and the Moscow region. The foundation also organizes warming centers for the homeless.
In 2010, Elizaveta Glinka, on her own behalf, collected material assistance for the benefit of victims of forest fires. In 2012, Glinka and her foundation organized a collection of items for flood victims in Krymsk. In addition, she participated in a fundraising event for flood victims, during which more than 16 million rubles were collected.
In 2012, together with other well-known public figures, she became the founder of the League of Voters, an organization aimed at monitoring compliance with the electoral rights of citizens. Soon, an unexpected audit was carried out at the Fair Aid Foundation, as a result of which the organization’s accounts were blocked, which, according to Glinka, they did not bother to notify them about. On February 1 of the same year, the accounts were unblocked and the fund continued to operate.
In October 2012, she joined the federal committee of the Civic Platform party. In November of the same year, she was included in the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights (list of members approved by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of November 12, 2012 No. 1513).
With the beginning of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, she provided assistance to people living in the territories of the DPR and LPR. In October 2014, she accused the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) of refusing to provide guarantees for a cargo of medicines under the pretext that we do not like the policies of your president. The head of the ICRC regional delegation in Russia, Belarus and Moldova, Pascal Cutta, denied these accusations.
At the end of October 2014, Elizaveta Glinka gave an interview to the Pravmir portal, where the words were allegedly heard: “As a person who regularly visits Donetsk, I claim that there are no Russian troops there, whether someone likes to hear it or not.”
Together with the All-Russian popular front acted as the organizer of the procession and rally “We are United” in the center of Moscow on November 4, 2014, in which a number of parliamentary and non-parliamentary parties of Russia took part. According to Glinka herself: “the purpose of the action is to demonstrate that we are for unity and peace, that we must be able to negotiate, and if society does not know how to listen to each other, then tragedies like in Donbass happen,” and also: “a reminder of unity of the Russian people, about the need for their unification. Nowadays a very difficult situation is developing around Russia. These are both sanctions and unsubstantiated accusations.”
In 2015 and 2016, I visited a Ukrainian citizen who was undergoing a trial in the city of Rostov. According to the sister and lawyers of the detainee, the Russian woman offered Savchenko to admit guilt and get a prison sentence, after which she would be pardoned.
Since 2015, during the war in Syria, Elizaveta Glinka has repeatedly visited the country on humanitarian missions - she was involved in the delivery and distribution of medicines, organizing the provision of medical care to the civilian population of Syria.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, on December 25, 2016, she was on board a Tu-154 that crashed near Sochi. Her husband confirmed this fact.
Personal life of Elizaveta Glinka:
The husband is an American lawyer of Russian origin, Gleb Glebovich Glinka, the son of the Russian poet and literary critic, second-wave emigrant Gleb Aleksandrovich Glinka, a descendant of a famous noble family.
Children: three sons (two natural and one adopted), who live in the USA.
State awards and public recognition of Elizaveta Glinka:
Order of Friendship (May 2, 2012) - for achievements in labor, many years of conscientious work, active social activities;
- Insignia “For Good Deeds” (March 23, 2015) - for great contribution to charitable and social activities;
- State Prize of the Russian Federation (2016) - for outstanding achievements in the field of human rights activities;
- Medal “Hurry to do good” (December 17, 2014) - for an active civil position in protecting the human right to life;
- Winner of the ROTOR competition in the category “Blogger of the Year” (2010);
- “Muz-TV Award 2011” in the category “For Contribution to Life”;
- “One Hundred Most Influential Women of Russia” (2011), 58th place;
- “100 Most Influential Women of Russia” by Ogonyok magazine, published in March 2014, took 26th place;
- Winner of the “Own Track” award for 2014 “For fidelity to medical duty, for many years of work in helping homeless and disenfranchised people, for saving children in eastern Ukraine.”
The film “Doctor Lisa” by Elena Pogrebizhskaya about the activities of Elizaveta Petrovna was shown on REN TV and won the TEFI-2009 award as the best documentary film.
Doctor Lisa (documentary)
Doctor Lisa: 5 Behaviors of a Real Person
Today we remember the words and actions of the philanthropist, human rights activist, resuscitator and public figure Elizaveta Glinka, who died in a plane crash over the Black Sea.
It seems that Elizaveta Glinka devoted her entire life good deeds. She helped those whom no one wanted to help. Her main patients are hopeless, dying, useless to anyone. No one but her. Every day of Doctor Lisa performed a small miracle. We remember her good deeds to be proud and take an example.
Started practicing palliative medicine
By training, Elizaveta Petrovna is a pediatric resuscitator-anesthesiologist. Had she remained as such, she would, of course, have been a brilliant doctor. But fate decreed that while confirming her medical diploma in the USA, she accidentally ended up in the palliative care department.This was many years ago, I had no idea what this place was. Standing in front of the sign, I asked: what is this? My husband replied, “This is the place where they die.”
Elizaveta Petrovna said more than once that she did not like, even hated, death. But then she wanted to go inside. Then Glinka said:
When I saw a tiny hospice in Burlington, in which 24 patients were lying and the medical staff fulfilled their every wish, when it turned out that people on the verge of death could be clean, fed, and not humiliated - it turned my life upside down.
For five years, Elizaveta Petrovna visited the hospice as a volunteer and learned to care for, not treat. And when specialization in palliative medicine appeared in America, I immediately studied it. And in 1999 she founded the first hospice at an oncology hospital in Kyiv.
My inner drive is love. I love our patients very much. After all, in fact, there is only one difference between me and Maryivanna, who lies in the hospice: she knows when she will die, but I don’t know when I will die. That's all. 
Adopted my patient's child
A 13-year-old boy from Saratov, Ilyusha, appeared in the Glinka family in 2008. When Doctor Lisa’s patient, Ilya’s mother, died of cancer, the teenager was about to be sent to Orphanage. Immediately after the funeral, Elizaveta Petrovna went and submitted an application for adoption to the guardianship authorities.Now Ilya is already an adult 22-year-old guy. Three years ago he gave Elizaveta Petrovna his first granddaughter. On your page in social network Ilya posted a photo with his mother and the caption: “I can’t believe it.” 
Transported more than a hundred children from the combat zone
Dr. Lisa has been taking children out of the war zone in Ukraine from the very beginning of the conflict - for more than two years in a row. During this time, she saved more than a hundred small patients.In her column for the Snob publication, journalist Ksenia Sokolova recalls how she accompanied Elizaveta Petrovna during a trip to Donetsk in 2015. From there they were supposed to take 13 children out, but they took out 10. About 50 more kids remained waiting for help. When asked why it is impossible to take everyone at once, Doctor Lisa replied:
...we can only take one bus - the convoy is more likely to be fired upon.
Just recently, last week, Doctor Lisa brought 17 more babies from Donbass for treatment and rehabilitation in Moscow hospitals.
Opened the first children's palliative department in Ulyanovsk
Ulyanovsk will never forget Elizaveta Petrovna Glinka. After all, it was thanks to Doctor Lisa that in 2013 the first children's palliative department was opened here in a specialized Children's Home. In an interview " Rossiyskaya newspaper"Glinka said:I will supervise this department. I want children to be provided not only with oxygen concentrators, diapers and the rest, but also with consumables, which are often unavailable. It is no secret that such orphanages and precisely such children are, unfortunately, financed on a residual basis. They will not be adopted, they will never get better.
But you can maintain their life in a decent condition so that they feel comfortable. If he is choking, give him oxygen. The position in which he sits is uncomfortable - find devices to make him comfortable. There are many hospices abroad special devices, right down to the spoons with which they feed. We don't have any of this. You have to start somewhere...
Dr. Lisa wanted to open such departments at every specialized children's home in all regions of Russia. 
Brought medicine to the war zone
The Fair Aid Foundation confirmed that on her last flight Elizaveta Petrovna was carrying medicines to the Latakia University Hospital: medicines for cancer patients, for newborns, Consumables, which did not arrive there due to the war and sanctions. A month ago, during the presentation of state awards in the Kremlin, Elizaveta Petrovna made a speech in which she said:It is very difficult for me to see the killed and wounded children of Donbass. Sick and killed children of Syria. It is difficult to change the usual image of a city dweller to life for 900 days during a war in which innocent people are now dying.
Alas, Doctor Lisa knew what she was talking about. The words with which she concluded her speech were also prophetic:
We are never sure that we will come back alive, because war is hell on earth, and I know what I'm talking about. But we are confident that kindness, compassion and mercy work stronger than any weapon. 
Elizaveta Petrovna Glinka (widely known as Doctor Liza; February 20, 1962, Moscow - December 25, 2016, Black Sea near Sochi, Russia) is a Russian public figure and human rights activist. Philanthropist, resuscitator by training, specialist in palliative medicine (USA), executive director of the International public organization"Fair help". Member of the Russian Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights.By decision of the Russian Minister of Defense, the name of Elizaveta Glinka will be assigned to one of the medical institutions of the Ministry of Defense. The Republican Children's Clinical Hospital in Grozny and a hospice in Yekaterinburg will be named after her.
Dr. Lisa Glinka was a real hero Russian charity. Kingdom of Heaven to Elizabeth Petrovna and all those who died in this disaster.
Today we remember Doctor Lisa - passionate, selfless, sometimes tough, sincere and very lively. Below is her biography and her statements from various interviews.
Biography
Elizaveta Petrovna Glinka (Poskrebysheva), known under the online pseudonym “Doctor Lisa,” was born in Moscow on February 20, 1962 in Moscow into a military family. Mother of Elizaveta Glinka - famous doctor, author of cookery books and TV presenter Galina Poskrebysheva.
After graduating from the Second Moscow State Medical Institute named after Pirogov in 1986 with a degree in pediatric resuscitation and anesthesiology, she and her husband, an American lawyer of Russian origin, Gleb Glinka, left for the United States. There she began working in hospice care and received a second medical degree in palliative medicine from Dartmouth Medical School.
In the late nineties, Elizaveta Glinka and her husband, who got a job in Ukraine, moved to Kyiv. There she became the organizer of a patronage palliative care service and the first free hospice in Ukraine at an oncology center. After her husband’s contract ended, the family returned to the United States, but Elizaveta Glinka continued to support the Kiev hospice.
In 2007, after returning to Moscow, she founded and headed the Fair Aid charity foundation. It was originally intended to provide hospice care to non-cancer patients. However, subsequently the organization had to take care of various categories of people in need, including the homeless and the poor. The foundation's volunteers distribute food, warm clothing and medicine to the homeless. Dozens of needy families also receive regular assistance different regions Russia.
In the summer of 2010, the Fair Aid Foundation participated in collecting assistance for victims of numerous forest fires. The campaign launched at that time attracted significant public attention to his activities. In the winter of 2010-2011, the foundation organized warming points for the homeless in Moscow.
In January 2012, Elizaveta Glinka became one of the founders of the League of Voters, which is associated with the unscheduled inspection of the fund and the temporary blocking of its accounts. In the fall of 2012, she was included in the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for the development of civil society and human rights (HRC).
With the outbreak of the armed conflict in the southeast of Ukraine, Elizaveta Glinka took an active part in providing assistance to residents of the unrecognized republics, including the evacuation of wounded and sick children to Russia. These actions, as well as her statement that she did not see Russian troops, caused accusations from a number of former like-minded people.
Elizaveta Glinka was a member of the board of the Vera Hospice Foundation, created in 2006. In addition to Kyiv and Moscow, she oversaw the work of hospices in other cities of Russia, as well as in Armenia and Serbia. Being Orthodox person, she has repeatedly publicly opposed the legalization of euthanasia.
Elizaveta Glinka left behind three sons (two natural and one adopted).
For her work, Doctor Lisa has repeatedly become a laureate of various state and public awards and prizes. In particular, in May 2012, “for the achieved labor successes, many years of conscientious work, and active social activities,” she was awarded the Order of Friendship, in December 2014, “for her active civic position in protecting the human right to life,” she was awarded the Medal of the Commissioner for Human Rights. Hurry to do good”, in March 2015, “for a great contribution to charitable and social activities” - the insignia “For good deeds”.
In December 2016, Elizaveta Glinka became the first laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation for achievements in human rights activities.
On the morning of December 25, 2016, a Tu-154 aircraft of the Russian Ministry of Defense crashed over the Black Sea near Sochi. Among its passengers was Elizaveta Glinka, who was accompanying a humanitarian cargo of medicines to a Syrian clinic.
About the profession
I wanted to be a doctor for as long as I can remember. Even when I was a little girl, I always knew - not that I wanted, but I always knew that I would be a doctor. When you work at your place, your work does not seem the hardest to you
About the cost of saving children
My task is to take out wounded and sick children so that they receive qualified free assistance, warm clothes, food and a supply of medicines. And I don't care how it's done.
At any cost, I emphasize and have spoken about this everywhere and will continue to say so. I will save you at any cost, I will negotiate with anyone, I will take you anywhere, even to China! If only he lived. Because I didn’t give this life to this child. And if someone takes it away, it’s not my business to figure out why and why. Because I'm a doctor. My job is to get him out of hell and put him in a normal hospital.
I work with those people whose beliefs are not shared by - well, I will say this - the overwhelming majority of society. These are the homeless, these are the poor, these are the poor, these are the sick. And finally, the mentally ill, there are especially many of them here now.
I work with outcasts and devotees. And not everyone understands me about this.
Six years ago, for example, there were people who helped our Fair Aid fund, gave me money, but said: “Not for the homeless.” And today, do you know what has changed? Today it’s like this: there are people who give money to the fund and say: “Only not for the homeless,” and there are people who give money and say: “Only for the homeless.”
My reaction to this is this: I respect freedom of choice. Therefore, I am grateful to everyone who helps me help.
In short, I don’t re-educate or convince anyone of anything. But I reserve the right to do as I consider necessary.
I am often asked: why do I help those I help? All this strange scary people. I answer: “Because they are people too. There are no other reasons."
You can’t reproach anyone with a piece of bread, not even a homeless person. Or rather, a homeless person in particular. You need to do the job and forget about it. Even if they deceive me. I would rather feed someone who is not very hungry anyway than accidentally refuse someone who really has nothing to eat.
There are times when this happens. I want to give up everything, take care of my three children, spend time with my family... But this is never connected with homeless or dying patients. This has to do with officials. In this regard, burnout occurred long ago and completely.
I stopped writing letters to authorities - except in some extreme cases. And as a rule, these letters are terribly humiliating. I don’t understand how government agencies responsible for social services can employ people who hate homeless people. In our state shelters, the sick are divided into categories, like chickens in a store: the disabled are fed three times a day, some other group - twice, a third group - once. There is no such thing in any country in the world!
But I don’t have “burnout” in relation to the sick and homeless. I don’t get tired of them, they don’t push me away. I love them and they love me. It only happens that I want to sleep... I found the following criterion: as long as I feel sorry for this person and I listen to him and feel sorry for him, then everything is still normal. But if I don’t care what he says, if I understand that I’m just automatically bandaging him, but I can’t hear him anymore, then I need to go to sleep.
The needs are great. If the blockade of the country by the Ukrainian army is not lifted, the situation may worsen.
About people, I won’t say that they are starving, but they eat little and poorly. Salaries are not very high. Winter is winter, if you don’t have your own garden, there’s nothing. People have a very bad time during the war. Add to this the endless shelling, which for some reason began after the elections in the United States. During this time, I visited Donbass twice: from behind the dividing line they start shooting at six in the evening, and do not stop until the morning - five hundred or more shells... A very tense situation in Gorlovka. But people do not give up, people live - and they need to be helped, while observing the rules that apply during war.
Elizaveta Petrovna Glinka is a doctor, a specialist in the field of palliative medicine, the creator and director of the first free Ukrainian hospice, opened on September 5, 2001 in Kyiv. About 15 patients are inpatients there, in addition, the “Care for the Sick at Home” program covers more than 100 more people. In addition to Ukraine, Elizaveta Glinka oversees hospice work in Moscow and Serbia.
In all the photographs, next to the patients, she has a lively smile and shining eyes. How can a person let hundreds of people pass through his heart, bury them - and not become bitter, not become covered with a crust of indifference, and not become infected with the professional cynicism of doctors? But she has had a huge deal on her shoulders for five years now - a free hospice (“you can’t charge money for it!”).
Dr. Lisa, her staff and volunteers have a motto: hospice is a place to live. And a full life, good quality. Even if the clock counts. Here good conditions, delicious food, quality medicines. “Everyone who has visited us says: how good it is here! Like at home! I want to live here!”
Readers of our site have long been familiar with her amazing stories - short sketches from the life of a hospice. It would seem like a few lines of simple text, but for some reason the whole worldview has changed, everything has become different...
Now Elizaveta Petrovna herself really needs help. For several months, Dr. Lisa has been living in Moscow: here in the hospital her mother, Galina Ivanovna, is seriously ill, and has been in the Burdenko neuroreanimation department for several months. She is in a 4th degree coma. With the slightest movement (turning over on her back, for example), her blood pressure rises to critical, which, if diagnosed, could mean the highest risk of death.
But Dr. Lisa was unable to stop being a doctor for these few months: at the hospital she helps many other people: with recommendations on finding funds for treatment, and most importantly, with advice and information about what treatment, according to the law, should be provided free of charge. The management of the clinic asked Elizaveta Petrovna to find another clinic for her mother within a week, despite the fact that Galina Ivanovna’s stay in the hospital would be fully paid for. However, in its current state, transportation is impossible; it would mean death.
Here is an excerpt from Elizaveta Petrovna’s letter to the director of the hospital: “Mom is being monitored in the department by the attending physician, who is well aware of the peculiarities of the course of her disease since the second operation. Care is provided by highly qualified nurses on a paid basis, the nurses perfectly perform everything related to the implementation of appointments.
This will prolong her life. Not for long, as I am aware of the lesions and consequences of her disease. In my opinion, transporting such a patient to a new medical institution can significantly worsen the already difficult situation. In addition to the medical aspect, there is an ethical aspect. Mom wanted to be buried in Russia in Moscow.
Personally, as a colleague and as a human being, I ask you to enter into my situation, leaving my mother in the hospital in which she was operated on and is being treated by knowledgeable doctors - those whom I trust.”
Dear readers, we ask for your deepest prayers for a successful resolution of the current situation!
Transcript of the program “Guest”Thomas "", which was recently broadcast on the radio "Radonezh ", prepared by the website "Mercy".
- Hello, dear friends. Today we have an amazing guest. This fragile, wonderful woman's name is Elizaveta Glinka. She is a palliative medicine doctor. Hello, Elizaveta!
- Hello!
— We learned about you from LiveJournal, where your name is “Doctor Lisa.” Why?
— Because I never had an information platform, and one former patient and close friend of mine said that I should start a live journal. And since it was a little difficult for me to open it and there was little time, I actually received this magazine as a gift. And “Doctor Lisa” is the so-called nickname that my friend gave me. And since then, I’ve had this magazine for a year and a half - and now everyone calls me “Doctor Lisa.”
— Why did you suddenly decide to connect your life with medicine?
“Because I wanted to be a doctor for as long as I can remember.” Even when I was a little girl, I always knew - not that I wanted, but I always knew that I would be a doctor.
“Nevertheless, there are still different directions in medicine. And what you do is perhaps one of the most difficult, if not the most difficult, because working in a hospice, working with patients who may have no chance of further life is probably one of the hardest jobs ?
- You know, it is always very difficult for me to answer such a question, because when you work in your place, your work does not seem to you the hardest. I love my job very much, and, for example, it seems to me that the hardest work is as a cardiac surgeon or psychiatrist. Or, if we don’t relate to medicine, from sellers who deal with a large number of people with different personalities.
— Why did you decide to do this? There are many different profiles in medicine - and you came to oncology...
“First I came to intensive care and autophysiology, and then life turned out so that I had to move from Russia to another country, where my husband took me to get acquainted with the hospice - and I saw what it looks like abroad. And, in fact, what I saw completely changed my life. And I set my goal to have the same departments in my country where people can die free and with dignity; I really wanted hospices to become available to all segments of the population. The hospital I did is in Kyiv, Ukraine - and in Moscow I I cooperate with the First Moscow Hospice, which was built fourteen years ago - and now we have been close friends for fourteen years with its founder, chief physician Vera Millionshchikova, quite well known here in medical circles.
The first hospice in Russia was built in the city of St. Petersburg, in the village of Lakhta Leningrad region four years earlier than the first Moscow one. That is, I knew that the beginnings of the hospice movement in Russia already existed, that is, the movement had already begun. And to say that I started from scratch is not true. There were developments - but for example, when we met the employees of the First Moscow Hospice, there was a mobile service and a hospital was just being organized.
And four years later, my life turned out in such a way that I was forced to leave for Ukraine, where my husband got a job under a contract with a foreign company for two years - and thus I ended up in Kyiv. This is where I discovered that, probably, my volunteer activities and the help of the First Moscow Hospice would have to be expanded in the sense that in Ukraine there was no place at all where doomed dying cancer patients were placed. That is, these patients were sent home to die, and if they were very lucky, they were left in multi-bed wards and hospitals in very poor conditions. And don't forget that this was six years ago, that is economic situation it was just terrible after the breakup Soviet Union- and these patients were literally in terrifying situations.
— Due to your profession and due to the characteristics of those people who are your patients, your patients and simply the people you help, you are faced with death every day. In principle, such questions of life and death, when a person first encounters them, as a rule, radically change his outlook on life. There are many such examples that can be given - from life, from literature, from cinema, etc. How does a person who faces such problems every day feel?
- Difficult question. Well, you see, on the one hand, this is my job, which I want to do well. And I probably feel the same thing that any person feels, because, of course, I feel very sorry for the patients who pass away from life, and even more I feel sorry for the patients who pass away in conditions of poverty. It is very painful to look at those patients who have the so-called pain syndrome - that is, those symptoms that, unfortunately, sometimes accompany the process of dying from cancer. But on the other hand, I must not forget that I am a professional, that this is my job, and I try, when going beyond the hospice, not to endure these experiences, not to bring them, for example, into my family and not to bring it’s in the company of people I communicate with, you know?
Because anyway, due to the circumstances in which I work, many, if I name my place of work and say what I do, expect to see some kind of guilty look, some kind of humiliation in the conversation - do you understand? I want to say that those who work with the dying are the same ordinary people, like us, and I want to add that dying people are also the same as us, they talk a lot about this and write a lot. But it seems to me that no one can hear and understand that the difference between that person who will die soon and me and you, for example, is that there the individual knows that he has very little time left to live - but you and I simply do not we know when and at what minute this will happen. And that's the only difference, you know?
Well, the fact that this happens often before our eyes is a specificity of the profession, I guess I’m just used to it. But this does not mean that my staff - for example, in the hospice - do not cry and do not worry. And in general in Ukraine it is very emotional people- much more emotional than people in Moscow, although I am a Muscovite by birth and by character. But I see that, of course, the staff is worried and crying - but with experience, something like this is developed... not that they become colder, but we just understand... Someone understands that they know something about life another, someone simply understands that they just need to pull themselves together in order to help the next patient. That's how we cope.
- Are there many people who believe that there is something else behind this life?
- I think that out of ten patients, seven will hope for something else beyond, and probably three patients who say - I don’t know if they really think so, but they tell me that there Nothing will happen. Two will strongly doubt, and one will be absolutely sure that there there is nothing, and this earthly life will end - and there that's all, there- empty.
— Do you somehow try to talk to people about these topics?
- Only if the patient himself wants it. Since a hospice is still a secular institution, I must, must respect the interests of the patient. And if this Orthodox Christian, and he wants to talk about it - I’ll bring him a priest, if he’s a Catholic, then he’ll get a priest, if he’s a Jew, then we’ll bring him a rabbi. I’m not a priest, you see, so yes, I will listen and I can tell him what I believe and what I don’t believe.
And there are patients with whom I do not advertise my Orthodoxy and simply level the conversation, because some patients do not accept the Orthodox faith - that is their point of view. In Ukraine there is now a wave of sick people who have joined the Jehovah’s Witnesses sect. And they are really being robbed: just recently a woman died - I wrote about her, Tanya - who, before entering the hospice, where these “brothers” and “sisters” brought her... The first question they asked when they entered: “Where can we sign power of attorney for retirement, who will do this for us?” I say: “Who is this “brother”? Which?" "In Christ!" That is, Tanya was a single woman who was in exile in Magadan for twenty years. And when she returned to Kyiv, they saw this unhappy, sick, lonely woman and “joined” her into the sect... And you know that such patients are weak, very subject to some kind of influence...
And our second conversation was about the fact that they had drawn up a will, according to which Tanya gave them all the real estate. And since this was the desire of this patient... Inside I understand that this is not very nice in relation to this woman, it is unfair, but her desire... She really waited - they came once a day, for five minutes, talking about what they love her, and she said: “Elizaveta Petrovna, my brothers and sisters came to me, look how they love me - they are our God Jehovah!..”. Here. And I couldn’t tell her that “you have the wrong religion,” because she had no one at all. And this is what she clung to two weeks before her death - I have no right to tear off this last attachment of hers in life, so sometimes I just don’t talk about this topic.
— You mentioned that you wrote about this woman, about Tanya. You already said - you are just known as a wonderful author of prose works, short stories - and behind each of them there is human destiny. There is an opinion that a writer is not one who can write, but one who cannot help but write. Why are you writing?
— I absolutely disagree with being called a writer, because a writer is probably someone who has received a special education or is more well-read than me. Indeed, I don’t want to show off. In general, the first story... well, not even a story - it’s really my diary. For me - it was a complete surprise when I published it - I had twenty friends there with whom we exchanged: where I was going, what diapers I was buying, something else - that is, purely hospice friends who knew a little bit what was in my life happens...
And then I met one family, the family was Jewish - in my hospice - and they were so different from ours Orthodox image life that I began my short observation - and shared a short story of this family. And the next day, opening the mail, I was completely shocked by the flurry of responses - it was a complete surprise! But, since purely physically I don’t have time to write large diaries, and I’ll even honestly say that I’m not very interested in the opinion of those who read me, I’m interested in what they themselves... I want them to hear, because, as a rule, I have there are no happy stories with happy endings - that is, I write destinies that touched me in one way or another.
— Were there any responses that you especially remember?
— What surprised me is the number of people who every day experience this pain from the loss of cancer patients - this is the most a large number of there were responses. Again, through the publication of these stories, I probably received about forty-three responses from patients who sought help. That is, this has now become such a platform - for example, now we are literally consulting virtually a woman from the Krasnodar Territory... From Ukhta, from regions of Russia, from Odessa - where hospices are not available - but they read that there is a place where these patients can help somehow - and so they write...
I was shocked by the absence, the information vacuum, which concerns the process of dying of patients - that it is possible to alleviate the symptoms, that there are drugs that somehow alleviate them... What surprised me from the responses - many were sure that the services of such a hospice - at the level of services provided at the First Moscow Hospice - paid. And it is very difficult to dissuade them... And, probably, this is my favorite credo, that hospices should be free and accessible to absolutely all segments of the population. I don’t care what kind of patient I have - a deputy, a businessman, a homeless person or a person on parole. And the selection criteria for admission to a hospice in both Russia and Ukraine - in addition to those that the City Health Department requires of me - are fatal diseases with a life prognosis of six months or less.
— Tell me, please, do you learn anything from your patients?
- Yes. Actually, this is a school of life. I learn from them not every day, but every minute. You can learn patience from almost every patient. They are all different, but there are those who endure what happened to them in life so patiently and with such dignity that I am sometimes very surprised. I am learning wisdom... It seems to me that Shakespeare wrote - I can’t vouch for the literalness of the quote, but approximately the following words: “those who die are stunning with their harmony, because they have the wisdom of life.” And this is really so, literally... You know, they still have little strength to speak, so they apparently think through some phrases and sometimes say things that, for how many years I’ve been working, shock me so deeply that yes, I really I learn from them.
And through some patients, I sometimes learn what not to do, because how you live is how you die, and indeed, not all patients are angels. For some reason, many people, reading my live journal, say: “Where do you find such amazing people?” Do you understand? No, they are not amazing - that is, I am saying that there are capricious requests - well, and cold, calculating people. And when I looked at how they passed away, and how the family was destroyed - or vice versa, how the family reacted, for myself personally, I probably came to the conclusion that, God willing, I would probably never do in my life. Therefore, we learn good things, we learn from mistakes, because it all happens before our eyes.
I have an amazing priest dying at the moment - the first Orthodox priest who is dying in my ward, today he turned sixty years old, they called him... And I’ll tell you: the thread was carried out in fifteen days, I went into the ward five times to communicate. And from him I probably learned more than from all my patients... And journalists recently came to my hospital and counted - 2,356 patients passed through my hands - and from one I received what in fourteen years of work I had not received from the rest... So I asked - father - what is humility? And he has been a priest for thirty-three years - can you imagine? And hereditary - his father was a priest, and his son is now a priest. He's an amazing, amazing person. And he says: the greatest humility is not to offend those who are weaker than you.
I tell him that this is the most difficult thing in life - not to offend those who are weaker than you, not to shout... And we don’t notice these little things. That is, it could not be some kind of dialogue, but he simply says things that make you think: how did I not understand this, and how did I not know this? This is our father...
— Kudos to you for what you do and thank you very much for taking the time to have this conversation!
- God bless...