Pediatric Surgery/ Transplantations

Pediatric Surgery was the first medical program adopted by CMCF.  Countless surgeries have been successfully accomplished in Poland as a direct result of the Fellowship program.

CMCF supports Pediatric Fellowships in the following Polish medical institutions.

• Central Hospital Rzeszow
• Children’s Memorial Health Institute, Warsaw /Institute of Mother and Child
• Karol Marcinkowski University of Medical Sciences in Poznan
• Medical Academy Bialystok
• Medical University/Academy Gdansk
• Medical University/Academy Lodz/Military Medical Academy of Lodz
• Medical University/Academy Wroclaw
• Medical University/Academy Warsaw
• Medical University Lodz/Polish Mother’s Health Center
• Medical University of Medical Sciences Poznan
• Provincial Pediatric Hospital for Children, Olsztyn
• N. Copernicus University in Torun
• Silesian Academy of Medicine in Katowice
• Provincial Hospital Elblag
• Poznan University of Medical Science

Historical  Highlights

• 1979 – Collaboration between Professor Zygmunt Kalicinski representing the Academy of Medicine and Centrum Zdrowia Dziecka, Professor Richard Fine,UCLA Medical School and Doctor Stefan Wilk a prominent Los Angeles radiologist, launches the international medical exchange that becomes the Children’s Medical Care Program.
• 1982 – First CMCF-funded fellows arrive for training in nephrology at UCLA in Los Angeles.
• 1983 – CMCF trained physicians successfully introduce Continuous  Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD).
• 1985 – The first pediatric renal transplants are performed in Poland by Professor Jerzy Czernik, Head of the Department of Pediatric Surgery and Urology, at University of Medicine and a joint team made up of CMCF sponsored Polish physicians trained at UCLA.
• 1990 – “Liver Transplant Program” was initiated by Professor Piotr Kalicinski, a former CMCF Fellow.  Professor Kalicinski and other pediatric surgeons and associated transplantation members performed the first liver transplant in history of Polish medicine.  Hundreds of transplants have occurred successfully. Children’s Memorial Health Institute in Warsaw under the leadership of Professor Piotr Kalicinski, is the only pediatric center in Poland performing liver and kidney transplantation and short bowel syndrome.
• Professor Piotr Kalicinski at Children’s Memorial Health Institute, Warsaw, began the “Multi-Organ Transplants Program” performing simultaneous liver/kidney transplantations. The success rates of these transplants are comparable to procedures in Western Europe and American medical centers.
• 2007 – Training in three University Centers (Pediatric Surgery and Urology in Wroclaw, Department of Pediatric Surgery in Katowice and Department of Surgery in Bialystok) have been identified as Centers for Excellence to train foreign doctors.
• 2008 – CMCF initiated a program to support training of surgeons and physicians specializing intestinal rehabilitation program including intestinal transplantation.
• 2012 – CMCF supports the establishment of the first “Dedicated Long Gap Esophageal Atresia Program in Gdansk”.
• 2013 – Professor Kalicinski, Chair of the International Pediatric Transplant Association, organized the 7th International Congress.  CMCF supported participation of 12 pediatric specialists from Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to attend this important congress highlighting recent advances in clinical and basic sciences related to pediatric transplantations.
• First Ex-Utero Intrapartum Treatment Procedure (Exit-procedures) performed on Fetus. Professor J. Bohosiewicz and his team of physicians and surgeons at Upper Silesian Center for Child Health, Katowice perform surgical procedures on fetuses prior to birth such as cerebrospinal hernia. The First Ex-Utero Intrapartum Treatment Procedure was performed by this team.