Ukraine's little heroine

By Aussiegirl

Let's have some good news for a change. A little Ukrainian heroine named Nastya Ovchar, all of five years of age, saved her two year old sister from the flames of their burning home in Kharkiv after attempting to put out the flames herself. When she saw that she was helpless before the raging fire, she shielded her two-year-old sister with her own body and carried her out of the building. As a result she suffered third degree burns over 80% of her body while her sister emerged relatively unscathed.

Viktor Yushchenko became personally involved in helping the brave little girl after her story captured the hearts of Ukrainians. When it became clear that Ukrainian hospitals lacked the resources to fully treat her, Viktor and his wife Katya looked for help in the United States. Through the help of the Shriners Burn Hospital in Boston she is now receiving state-of-the-art treatment in the United States.

According to Ukrainian sources, President Yushchenko will be visiting with Nastya when he visits the United States in the first part of April. There are also reports in Ukrainian sources that the Shriner's Hospital said that her treatment would involve something that sounded almost like a twilight sleep, where she will be kept sedated while she recovers from surgeries and skin grafts on her back and torso. They reportedly praised the initial treatment that she received in Ukraine.

Here's
the rest of the story:

If they made a movie about Nastya, they could well call it
''The President and the Little Girl," for it was the intervention of a
national leader who had endured his own share of physical suffering
that
assured the 5-year-old could receive lifesaving medical treatment.

Tales of the rescue swiftly captured the attention of Ukrainians. That
nation's newly installed president, Viktor Yushchenko, extended his
assistance to Nastya. Yushchenko confronted pain and disfigurement last
year, when he was poisoned during his campaign for president.

''Mr. Yushchenko always supported very young people. Children are the
future of our country," said Iryna Bezverkha, press secretary of the
Ukraine Embassy in Washington. ''This is a really inspiring
story."