Academician Andrei Ivanovich Vorobyov made an invaluable contribution to the development of domestic medicine. He is the largest modern hematologist and leading scientist in the field of blood diseases. Under the guidance of a doctor, various oncology treatment methods have been developed, thanks to which it was possible to save the lives of tens of thousands of patients.
On November 1, 2018, the academician celebrated his ninetieth anniversary. He managed a lot in his life: he went through repression and war, stood at the origins of Soviet medicine and saved it during the years of perestroika. We will tell about the fate of this outstanding person in the article.
Biography
Andrei Ivanovich Vorobyov was born in Moscow on 01/01/1928. His parents, also native Muscovites, Ivan Ivanovich and Mirra Samuilovna, met while studying at a commercial school, where their love originated. Then they entered the Faculty of Medicine at Moscow State University together and joined the Bolshevik party. They got married after the return of Ivan Ivanovich from the Civil War, in 1920. In 1922, daughter Irina was born, and six years later, son Andrei.
Vorobyov’s parents were engaged in science, but at the same time they were active communists. In December 1936, his father was shot at someone’s denunciation, and his mother was arrested and put in solitary confinement in the Lubyanka prison. In 1937 she was sentenced to ten years in camps and sent to Kolyma.
So, at the age of eight, Andrei Ivanovich Vorobyov became, one might say, an orphan. He spent his childhood in boarding schools, but this did not stop him from graduating from school with a gold medal, though belatedly. In 1947, the young man entered the First Moscow Medical Institute. Among his teachers were Vitaly Popov, Vladimir Vinogradov, Vladimir Vasilenko, Alexander Myasnikov. In 1953, Vorobyov received a diploma, and from that time his medical career began.
The beginning of the path in hematology
After graduation, Andrei Ivanovich worked in the Volokolamsk hospital by distribution, where he was both a pediatrician, and a therapist, and an obstetrician, and even a pathologist. It was there that the young doctor was the first in the country to make an exchange blood transfusion to a newborn with hemolytic jaundice. This began his path as a hematologist.
In 1956, Dr. Andrei Ivanovich Vorobyov entered the residency of the Institute for Advanced Medical Studies, where Joseph Kassirsky was his teacher. Under the guidance of this clinical scientist, Vorobyov defended his candidate and doctoral dissertations. In the 1960s, in the course of scientific research, the hematologist discovered that with various anemia populations of altered red blood cells appear. This observation was subsequently laid the basis for the development of a method for determining the level of hemoglobin and the hypothesis of shunt hematopoiesis.
1960s
In the mid 60's. Andrei Ivanovich Vorobyov was the ambassador of peace in Kuwait. Upon his return, he began to work at the Institute of Biophysics of the USSR Ministry of Health, as the head of the clinical department. Together with his colleagues, he was engaged in radiation medicine and the treatment of radiation sickness. Scientists have found a new solution for biological dosimetry, which made it possible to identify a dose of radiation, not only affecting the body as a whole, but also on its individual areas.
At the turn of the 70s. a great event took place in the country's hematology: doctors under the leadership of Andrei Ivanovich Vorobyov cured the first child in the USSR who had acute leukemia.
New position
In 1971, after the death of Kassirsky, the scientist took his place and became the head of the department of intensive care and hematology at the Institute for Advanced Medical Studies. He worked there until 2018.
In the 70s. Vorobyev was included in the consultants of the Main Directorate of the Soviet Ministry of Health, who were involved in the treatment of high-ranking patients. In 1978, Andrei Ivanovich had the opportunity to lead a team of specialists who accompanied the president of Algeria, Juari Boumedien, who fell ill during a visit to Moscow. In the sky, the state of the Algerian leader worsened, and he lost consciousness. For a month, Soviet doctors fought for his life, but all efforts were unsuccessful.
Chernobyl and the Spitak earthquake
In 1986, when the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred, Andrei Ivanovich Vorobyev headed the government medical commission for providing assistance to the victims. He received irradiated firefighters and conducted intensive care. In addition to sterile conditions and antibiotics, patients required a large number of donor platelets, and at that time only doctors managed by Vorobiev were able to harvest them.
In 1987, Andrei Ivanovich was elected an academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, and in the same year he was appointed director of the Institute of Blood Transfusion and Hematology, which was later transformed into the Hematological Research Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. In this post, the scientist worked until 2011.
When a devastating earthquake struck Armenia in 1988, Academician Andrei Ivanovich Vorobyov and a team of institute staff, together with a road train collecting donor blood, set off for the scene of the tragedy. There, our specialists successfully implemented developments in intensive care in the case of prolonged compression syndrome. Thanks to this technique, hundreds of victims were saved.
As minister
In 1990-1991 Andrei Ivanovich Vorobyov was elected as a deputy. In August 1991, on the radio Echo of Moscow, he openly opposed an attempted coup. Soon he was offered to take the post of Minister of Health of the new state, and he agreed.
However, the academician did not stay at this post for long. The country adopted a law on health insurance, radically changing the functions and structure of protecting the health of citizens. The provisions of this document were at variance with the views of Vorobyov, who believed that medicine should be publicly available and free. As a result, he resigned as minister and continued his research activities.
Andrei Ivanovich Vorobyov returned to work at the institute and took up the development of two areas: the formation of modern intensive care and the treatment of blood tumors. In 2000, he was elected an academician of the RAS Department of Biological Sciences.
Achievements
Vorobyov’s account has many scientific achievements. He was the first in the world to create a biological dosimetry system, which allows one to determine its future severity even before the development of the main symptoms of the disease. The scientist also made a significant contribution to the development of a methodology for the treatment of compression syndrome in the event of an earthquake.
In his hematology center, Andrei Ivanovich formed a care team, which throughout the country was engaged in the obstetric practice of stopping bleeding in puerperas using massive transfusions of freshly frozen plasma. Previously, whole blood was used for these purposes, which often led to the death of patients from massive blood loss. As a result of new obstetric practice, the number of such deaths has been halved.
Academician Vorobyov has achieved success in treating lymphosarcomas of various localization, which were previously considered incurable. He was able to achieve persistent remissions in the first cycle of high-dose therapy programs. In addition, Andrei Ivanovich developed a hematopoiesis scheme, on the basis of which all modern work on leukogenesis is now based.
During the work, the academician created about four hundred textbooks and monographs. Under his leadership, more than fifty dissertations, of which fifteen doctorates, were defended.
A family
Andrei Ivanovich Vorobyov, while still studying at the institute, married a girl named Inna Pavlovna Kolomoitseva. In 1953, their first-born Ivan was born, and in 1958 Pavel was born. Both sons also became doctors. Senior - biologist, head of the laboratory at Moscow State University. The younger one works at Sechenov Medical Academy. Vorobyov has twelve grandchildren, of whom five also connected their lives with medicine.
The wife of Andrei Ivanovich died in 2001. Subsequently, the academician married Alexandra Mikhailovna Kremenetskaya. She is a hematologist.
More recently, on 01/01/2018, Vorobyov turned ninety years old. He is already very weak, practically does not walk, cannot read and write. The good news is that close to Andrei Ivanovich are his close people: his wife, sons and grandchildren, who take care of him and do everything so that the life of an outstanding scientist continues.