Dr Vera Vassilyevna Millionshtchikov Died [Новость добавлена - 07.02.2011]

Dr Vera Vasilievna Millionshtchikov Founder of the Russian hospice movement, Head Doctor of the first Moscow hospice has died today (21.01.2010) in the morning on the 69^th year of her life. She has been pioneering the hospice since its setting up for 16 years.

About the death of Vera Vasilievna Millionshtchikov radio station “Ekho Moskvy” reported her daughter Maria. According to the woman, her mother died at home from an extensive thromboembolism. The date of the funeral and burial will be announced later.

This is a great sorrow and the irrplacabler loss for all people involved in hospice movement in Russia, all the patients and the whole country!

The death of Millionshchikova Vera Vassilyevna

It is with great sadness that the news of the death of Vera Vassilyevna on Tuesday, 21^st December, 2010, has been received in the UK both by the Victor Zorza Hospice Trust and all who knew her personally.
It is sad news for Russia and for the Russian hospice movement, for which she was a wonderful champion. The loss of Vera Vassilyevna is greater than words can properly express. She can never be replaced, such was her devotion to her patients, their families and friends, her staff and the hospice volunteers, and, of course, her dedication to furthering the cause of Palliative Care in Moscow and throughout the country.
Although Palliative Care was not Vera Vassilyevna’s original medical speciality, she brought to it a seemingly innate understanding of its principles and used her extensive knowledge of medicine to put them into practice with whatever was available to her. Her compassion for patients facing an uncertain future in the progress of their disease, frequently malignant cancer, was outstanding. She was a brave, strong, independent and determined woman, who used her inexhaustible capacities for the cause which she so passionately defended.
As a specialist in palliative care, I had the great privilege of working in the clinical field with Vera Vassilyevna and her staff in the 1990’s. During that time the respect in which I held her increased daily; I feel immensely proud to have known Vera Vassilyevna and to have worked with her in the First Moscow Hospice at a time when it was developing into the centre of excellence that it has now become.
My deepest sympathies go to the Russian hospice movement for the loss of one of its principal leaders and to all who knew Vera Vassilyevna personally. Long may she be remembered and her legacy of compassion emulated.

Wendy J Jones
Former Director, British Russian Hospice Society
December 2010