The High Altitude Pulmonary and Pathology Institute (HAPPI-IPPA)
Dec 5, 2024
Dear Dr. Olena Klyuchko:
It is interesting to note that my father had named La Paz, the Capital of Hypoxia since many years ago. The reason was that it was the highest city and most populated city in the world. You can appreciate this during our 1st Symposium in 2005:
Nevertheless, I was delighted when Pavel decided to transfer the “Crown” of the “Capital of Hypoxia” to us here in La Paz, Bolivia during the 7th Chronic Hypoxia Symposium:
https://zuniv.net/symposium7/Abstracts7CHS.pdf
His Abstract is the first one and is presented here:
I realized that his decision was well intentioned and sincere as Pavel always had an honest and kind personality. Furthermore, it was not only a generous attitude of him but his standing as a great hypoxia scientist authority from Ukraine.
I did wonder why the capital of hypoxia was in Kiev as it is at sea level? Perhaps it was because of the Bogomoletz studies? Or was it somewhere else?
Just some interesting questions for history!
All the best!!
Gustavo
We remember him dearly and suffered very much his loss during the COVID Pandemic. My father who passed away in 2015, at 90 years of age here in La Paz, loved Pavel dearly. Thanks to an invitation by Tatiana Serebrovskaya we visited twice with him in Kiev and had a wonderful time together.
Gustavo Zubieta-Castillo (Sr), an Ukranian Colleague, Pavel Beloshistky in front of the Red Building of the Kiev University.
Pavel Beloshitsky and Gustavo Zubieta-Calleja (Jr) in front of the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Monument in Kiev.
He also came to La Paz, Bolivia during the 1st World Congress on High Altitude Medicine and Physiology that we organized jointly with John Tripplett and Bengt Kayser.
Visiting the High Altitude Pulmonary and Pathology Institute (IPPA) during the 1st World Congress on High Altitude Medicine and Physiology . From left to right, Y. Gippenreyter, Gustavo Zubieta-Castillo (Sr), Luis Zubieta-Calleja, Pavel Beloshistky. Oct 1994
Dec 11, 2024
Dr. Olena Klyuchko responded:
Gustavo, my greetings to you!
The story of why Kyiv was called the “Capital of Hypoxia” was told to me by doctors and scientists Pavel Beloshitsky (PB) and Oleg Bogomolets (OB), the son of the famous Alexander Bogomolets (AB). I can tell you about them in the future. They were fantastically interesting people, but before it was forbidden to talk about them – now it is possible.
It all started in the 1920s. AB was already a famous doctor and scientist. He had already created and was the Director of the Institute of Physiology in Kyiv, now it is the A. A. Bogomolets Institute of Physiology of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (IF NASU), where we all met and worked for many years. In the summer of the 1920s, he went on vacation to the Caucasus Mountains, to the mineral water resort. It was a very difficult time after the First World War. Everything was destroyed, there was no food, people were starving. He was told about a very good doctor Nikolai Syrotinin (NS), who lived in the mountains. He lived in poor villages and treated people in the mountains who had no money at all. People fed him for this. NS also recorded observations of people, diseases, and nature in those places. Professor AB wanted to meet him, and they became friends. AB invited him to work in Kyiv, at his Institute of Physiology (IF NASU). NS created a large group of people who studied various aspects of hypoxia in Kyiv. For example, AB and NS invited many talented young people to work for them, and it was NS who got the boy Pavel Beloshitsky (PB) interested in his ideas. The EMBS Center in the Caucasus was a “laboratory” in which they actually conducted research in the mountains; BUT it was created as a scientific “branch” for IF NASU. However, hypoxia is a multifaceted phenomenon, and a lot of work could be done in Kyiv. For example, A.Bogomolets himself was most interested in how to help the wounded who were losing a lot of blood. We had 2 World Wars, now there is a war again – there were millions of wounded, and they were taken to Kyiv to be treated. Many died from blood loss and people wanted to help them. Our city is an important medical, scientific center that has been known for about 2000 years – at first people were treated with herbs, honey, etc. 1500 years ago, Kyiv became the center of Christianity and people were treated in churches and monasteries; in each century, treatment methods were improved. In the 20th century, AB and NS began to develop their new methods – and we continue now. AB and NS also invited people from other Kyiv institutes to their projects – gerontology, psychiatry, hematology, oncology, pediatrics, etc. These were very large-scale projects, when many people worked on hypoxia research, solving related problems. So now it is very clear why N.Syrotinin called Kyiv the “Capital of Hypoxia”. For example, NS was very interested in the issues of treating schizophrenic patients in hypoxic conditions in the mountains; and NS with PB achieved success in this (see publications in the profiles of PB and mine). PB even told me that there is a version that NS liked to live in the mountains so much because he also had this disease. But he developed for himself a lifestyle and treatment in hypoxic conditions – that’s why he was able to live a healthy, talented life. In Ukraine N. Sirotinin became a famous doctor and scientist, received his PhD, then an Academician of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He became the Head of the Hypoxia Department in In.Physiology and at the same time the first Director of EMBS in the Caucasus (then he handed it all to his student Pavel Beloshitsky).
However, all this became possible only because A. Bogomolets once invited him to Kyiv.
But, when N. Sirotinin became famous, he was invited to Moscow (“lured”). This happened very often in our lands, in all centuries… So I think that colleagues “from there” do not know what I told you.
Dr. Elena Klyuchko. Kyev, Ukraine.
Olena M. Klyuchko
National Aviation University · Faculty of Electronics
PhD – Professor
Associate Professor of the National Aviation University(Kyiv,UA) PhD(biophysics); MS(computer sciences), BA(linguistics)
The French team Marie-Noelle Fiamma, Maxime Patout, Clara Bianchi in Tiawanaku. Foto courtesy of Marie-Noelle.
Maxime pulmonary function testing. Foto courtesy of Marie-Noelle.
Dr. Eileen Hasser Chairing the Symposium
Symposium in the IPPA auditorium.
The monolito gift for the PIs!!
Daniel signing, Chris and Maxime playing the guitars!! Great music!!
What a musical talent in Science! Clara singing, Chris and Maxime guitars!!
