Scientist and doctor Galina Mikhailovna Savelyeva celebrated her 90th birthday in 2018. But, looking at this charming woman, who still continues to work at the Russian National Research Medical University. Pirogov, it is difficult to imagine her age. Galina Mikhailovna is one of the oldest practicing obstetrician-gynecologists in Russia. To this day, colleagues and patients turn to her for advice, so the doctor’s work schedule, as before, is scheduled by the minute.
Early years
Gynecologist Galina Mikhailovna Savelyeva was born in the village of Kuvaka, Penza province, on February 23, 1928. Her father, Mikhail Kuzmich Tantsyrev, was a petroleum engineer, and her mother, Maria Tikhonovna Tantsyreva, was a teacher. Galina spent her childhood in Syzran, where her father was sent to work.
At first, the girl did not dream of a medical career, but wanted to become a teacher. She read textbooks aloud to the dolls that were her imaginary students. It was an interesting gameplay. But soon the schoolgirl had a new hobby. ATduring the war years, during the summer holidays, Galina went to work in the hospital as a laboratory assistant. She had to carry out medical assignments and make dressings for the wounded.
One day the girl came to the operating room to see the progress of the operation. Unlike other assistants, who felt bad from what they saw, Galya was not afraid. After that, she was taken to work in the laboratory. There she took blood for research and counted its elements under a microscope. It was then that Savelyeva was firmly convinced of her own destiny, and she decided to become a doctor.
Education
Galina Mikhailovna graduated from school already in Moscow, where her dad was transferred to work. She was almost an excellent student - in the certificate there was only one four. The girl for a long time could not decide which of the medical universities of the capital she should enter. On the advice of a friend, she applied to the Second Medical Institute, successfully passed the entrance exams, and became a student in 1946.
Galina really liked the learning process. At the institute, she not only met true friends, but also met her future husband, with whom she subsequently lived in marriage for more than sixty years. In her fourth year, Savelyeva enrolled in a surgery group, but then she became interested in obstetrics and decided that she would be a gynecologist.
In 1951, Galina entered the residency at the Second Medical Institute on the basis of the First City Hospital. There were no places in her speci alty, and she had to study at the department of nervous diseases. For a month, the girl was engaged in neurology, until a professor accidentally saw her, to whom sheI went to a gynecological club. He helped Savelieva, and soon she was transferred to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Medical career
In 1954, Galina Mikhailovna completed her residency. Almost immediately after that, she was offered the position of head of the maternity unit at the First City Hospital. Savelyeva herself recalls that it was not easy to work then. Women in labor often had complications, because there was no diagnostic equipment, they did not even do an ultrasound.
In 1960, the doctor's career continued at the 2nd Moscow Medical Institute named after N. I. Pirogov, where she came to work as an assistant in the obstetrics and gynecology department. From 1965 to 1968 was an assistant professor in this department. In 1968 she defended her doctoral dissertation, after which she received the position of professor. A year later, she became the head of the department of obstetrics and gynecology of the evening department. In 1974 she became the head of the department at the Faculty of Pediatrics.
From 1971 to 1991 Galina Mikhailovna Savelyeva led the All-Union Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. For many years she has been involved in the worldwide movement of doctors against nuclear war. In 1988 she became a full member of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. In 1991, she received the position of Vice President of the Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Russia. In the same year, under her leadership, the European Congress was held in Moscow, which was attended by 1500 domestic and foreign specialists in the field of gynecology.
Most Significant Studies
Over the yearswork at the institute. Pirogova Galina Mikhailovna Savelyeva formed her own scientific school, which later became the leading one in the Russian Federation and received a grant from the President of the country. The main developments of the department were carried out in the field of pediatric gynecology, resuscitation and intensive care of newborns born in asphyxia, endoscopy.
Galina Mikhailovna is one of the founders of perinatology, a new clinical discipline whose goal is to reduce the mortality and morbidity of children associated with pregnancy and childbirth. Over the years, she has studied the parameters that characterize the metabolism of the newborn and fetus, and revealed the direction of its changes in oxygen deficiency.
Works on the coagulation and rheological properties of blood in a newborn and mother, as well as on monitoring the hormonal status of pregnant women, have received great practical importance.
USSR State Prize
In 1986, Galina Mikhailovna Savelyeva was awarded the country's highest award for developing a system of resuscitation for newborns born in asphyxia. Under the supervision of Academician Leonid Semenovich Persianinov, she studied the condition of the fetus on special equipment that recorded cardiac activity. Then it was a breakthrough, because earlier the heartbeat was listened to with a tube. Then Savelyeva and several other specialists began to study the biochemical acid-base indicators of the state of the fetus, in which they were also among the first in the USSR.
These fundamental studies have made a significant contribution to the study of the mechanism of development of hypoxianewborns and made it possible to develop a system for resuscitation of children with suffocation.
Other achievements
Another achievement of Galina Mikhailovna was the introduction of operative and diagnostic endoscopy in the treatment of gynecological patients. Her 1983 monograph Endoscopy in Gynecology has become a reference book for all specialists in this field. For a series of works on this topic in 2001, Professor Savelyeva was awarded the Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation.
Galina Mikhailovna received another government award for the development and implementation of endovascular surgery to restore and preserve women's reproductive he alth. She found a way to stop bleeding when hysterectomy was required for any reason.
Scientific and teaching work
In total, Savelyeva is the author of more than 550 scientific papers, the most significant of which are the monographs "Resuscitation of newborns", Obstetric hospital", "Endoscopy in gynecology", "Placental insufficiency", "Laparoscopy in gynecology", "Hysteroscopy”, as well as the textbooks “Gynecology” and “Obstetrics”.
For more than thirty years, Galina Mikhailovna headed the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Medical Institute. Pirogov. Every year, about eight hundred students studied with her, as well as twenty to thirty graduate students and residents. A talented teacher has trained 37 doctors and 125 candidates of sciences, who are now successfully working not only in Russian, but also in many leading foreign clinics.
A teacher is also a student
Saveleva notes that she has always perceived and perceives her students as friends. She never felt the difference in age and did not betray the importance that she was much older than them. Today, Galina Mikhailovna's wards are mature and worthy people, whom she often turns to for advice.
Among the well-known students of the doctor is Valentina G. Breusenko, one of the leading specialists in the field of hysteroscopy, which is a minimally invasive method of examining the uterus using a hysteroscope. Her other pupil, Raisa Ivanovna Shalina, is considered a highly qualified obstetrician specializing in preterm birth. Another former student, Lali Grigorievna Sichinava, has gained great fame abroad, and is now working on the problem of multiple pregnancy.
Especially among her students, Galina Mikhailovna singles out Mark Arkadyevich Kurtser, who replaced her as head of the department. For a long time he was the chief obstetrician-gynecologist of Moscow, made many important innovations that saved the lives of hundreds of women.
Awards and titles
For her many years of medical practice, Savelyeva received many honorary titles and government awards. She is the owner of the Orders of Friendship, "Badge of Honor", "For Services to the Fatherland." Laureate of the State Prize of the USSR and two Prizes of the Government of the Russian Federation. In 2003, she received the title of Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation and was awarded the medal "For Services to Domestic He alth Care."
In 2012 she received the award of the Formula of Life festival in the Honor and Dignity nomination. In 2013, she became an academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 2015, she was awarded the Reproductive Tomorrow of Russia award in the Bringing Light nomination. In 2018, she was awarded the distinction "For Services to Moscow". In the same year, for special services to the people and the state, she received the title of Hero of Labor.
Galina Mikhailovna Savelyeva, in addition to the above, has other awards. She is the owner of the VDNKh Silver Medal, the V. F. Snegirev and V. S. Gruzdev Prizes, and many honorary government diplomas.
Private life
During her studies at the Second Medical Institute, Galina met Viktor Savelyev. He studied in another group and dreamed of becoming a surgeon. For a long time, the young man tried to attract the attention of the girl: he sat next to him at lectures, helped with exams. At first, Galina believed that Victor was too simple for her, because she was from an intelligent family, and he was an ordinary guy from Tambov. But later Savelyev was able to charm the girl with his charm and wit. It was Victor who enrolled Galina in a surgery circle, but then he asked her to choose another direction, since “two surgeons are not needed in the house.”
The lovers got married by the end of their studies - in 1950. In 1959, the couple had a son, Sergei. Throughout their lives, the spouses were engaged in scientific and practical activities, and each managed to make a dizzying career: the wife - in gynecology, the husband - in surgery. In 2013, Viktor Sergeyevich passed away. Galina Mikhailovna found solace in communicating with her grandchildren andraising great-grandchildren.
Currently
Now Savelyeva no longer leads the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, but is its honorary professor and continues to work, as she has for the previous thirty years. Reads lectures to doctors, prepares many scientific papers. In 2018, she was engaged in the reprinting of a textbook on obstetrics. According to the doctor himself, her work has not become less: patients with gynecological pathologies are still brought to her, colleagues seek advice on obstetric issues.
Galina Mikhailovna says that, despite the development of progress and technology, today women still have the same problems in the field of obstetrics and gynecology that they had before. Many people have difficulty conceiving and bearing children. Now her activities are aimed at studying the foundations of the occurrence of certain gynecological diseases.
It will probably be years before doctors learn how to correct the genome and remove defects before they become irreversible. But Savelyeva has no doubts that drugs will soon be created that have the ability to act at the subcellular level; there will be regenerative technologies that we can only dream of today. And this will be, among other things, her merit!
