ARVADA, Colo. — When Ellie Titarenko first moved to the United States 23 years ago from Ukraine, her first medical appointment was at a dentist's office – she still remembers how uncomfortable that experience was.
She heard people speaking a different language and she wondered if the dentist and staff members were talking about her.
After going through that experience, Titarenko "carried a dream in her heart" to make sure that her future patients would never feel uncomfortable the way she did.
When Titarenko first became a licensed nurse practitioner, she began caring for patients who spoke the languages she did – Russian, Ukrainian, Polish and English.
"They were a bit lost. They were uncomfortable to go to English-speaking providers," said Titarenko. "They couldn’t express themselves, and especially this area of town didn’t have anybody working in the community. So for many years, I carried a dream in my heart that I wanted to help those people."
In 2021, she opened Arvada West Family Medicine. In a little over a year, 3,000 patients have walked through the doors of Titarenko's clinic, choosing her as their primary care provider. Together, her patients represent more than 130 countries.
The large majority of her patients are of Eastern European descent. Titarenko guesses about 75% of her patients were born or have some kind of Eastern European background from Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Belarus and other neighboring countries.
Titarenko speaks four languages and many of her appointments are conducted in languages other than English, speaking with her patients who may not be native English speakers or prefer to speak in their native language during medical appointments.
"I think people trust, they want to have somebody that knows them from within," said Titarenko.
Patients feel important when they visit Arvada West Family Medicine, including Maria Figlus who moved to Colorado in 1962 from Ukraine. She originally met Titarenko through their church community.
She became one of Titarenko's first patients.
"Whenever she opened the clinic, I said to my daughter, 'I have to come here.' It's been over a year that I am coming here (now)," said Figlus, who moved to the United States in 1949.
For her, this clinic has become more than a place to receive medical care. It's also become a place to share and grieve what is happening in Ukraine now. When Figlus was a child, she fled from Ukraine to Siberia out of fear for her life between Russian and Ukrainian tensions.
"If I think about it now, that is probably why my blood pressure so high. I cannot sleep if I look at the television - destruction. So what if the war ends? They destructed Ukraine completely," said Figlus.
The destruction of Ukraine is something that comes up often in the appointments with Titarenko. She hopes to provide a sense of relief to patients emotionally and physically. Figlus said being able to speak in her native language through the conversations about current events and her own medical history makes her feel more comfortable.
"She can explain everything in Ukrainian, like she can do in English, even about the test that I had. She explained it to me, everything in Ukrainian. This is the first place that someone in United States is talking to me in Ukrainian," said Figlus. "I do feel a lot better and more secure and more, how should I say, safe."
Iryna Lubyanetska, who has been a patient since the clinic opened, is also from Ukraine and appreciates the fact that Titarenko understands her background.
"We eat different foods. We were exposed to different air. Around 1986 we were exposed to the (Chernobyl) catastrophe, so we have a little different background before we came here," said Lubyanetska. "I think for the doctor that knows and understands that, because she was part of that as well, it kind of makes a difference a little bit."
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