Cancer Kids Ukraine

Why do the children suffer? Why do the children die? Why is it MY child? What to do, how to save? Why, why, why… These are the questions haunting Eugenia, Valeria’s mother, days and nights. The questions to wake up with and to clasp to her breast the tiny, helpless girl. This all began as if in a dream – a young couple, loving husband, long-awaited baby-girl who made enormously happy the whole family - the parents, grandmas and granddads… The problems started in the early 2009 when little Valeria lost her appetite and became moody, which the parents first regarded as nothing but the child’s whims. However, on March 18, 2009, the girl complained about horrible abdominal pains. They took her to the hospital where ultrasound examination unexpectedly showed a large solid space-occupying lesion in the retroperitoneal space.

That was like a thunderbolt from a clear sky. This is something Valeria’s parents cannot get used to until now… The life turned into a nightmare one cannot wake up from. All became very secondary except for one thing – to have enough time and money to save the dear child. At first, little Valeria was taken to the Cancer Institute in Kiev, where she spent two months with her mother undergoing the biopsy, computer tomography, blood tests, histologic analyses and so on. Finally, she was diagnozed with the embryonal lipoblastoma of the retroperitoneal space, which proved to be a wrong diagnosis later on. In spite of the doubts about the diagnosis, the doctors still conducted a course of the chemotherapy but it was ineffective. Unfortunately, the precious time was wasted, and the girl’s health was weakened. The doctors in Kiev deemed the tumor inoperable.

The family had to seek further help in Russian hospitals. Valeria was taken to the cancer hospital in St. Petersburg, and afterwards referred to Moscow’s children’s clinic Solncevo, where the little girl went through numerous tests and examinations again. Several histological examinations done by different labs first showed confusing results such as PNET, however finally after running the tests in the independent labs, they discovered this was an atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor. The new diagnosis is no less scarier than the previous one…

This is a very rare type of tumor, which is difficult to cure. The doctors in the St Petersburg’s hospital refused to do a surgery. When Valeria was admitted to the clinic in Moscow, her case was consulted with a number of oncologists. Unfortunately, there is practically no chance that the girl can be helped in Russian or Ukrainian hospitals. Therefore, the only possibility to save Valeria is to continue treatment in a very good foreign clinic. Her medical records were sent to the German hospitals specialized in childhood oncological diseases.

The doctors from the University clinic in Munster (Germany) studied the girl’s case and agreed to admit her for the treatment, which will cost EUR 100,000. Needless to say, it’s a huge amount for the girl’s family whose money has already been exhausted in the previous months of treatment. By the middle of July 2009 they have been able to raise only about EUR 20,000…

Now Valeria is staying at the Russian clinic Solncevo where she’s being given chemotherapy in order not to allow the tumor to grow and to prepare the girl for the further treatment in Germany. The volunteers from Moscow visited Valeria in the clinic last week-end. Here’s what they wrote:

“Valeria is very weak now, she eats very little and is so skinny that we could not believe her sickly body could still poise her head. We could hardly keep back the tears looking at her… Little Valeria met us cautiously at first. She is a genuine little lady! She graciously thumbed through the book we brought her and got interested in the picture of one of the volunteers’ son saying she would take him as a husband -). When it came to taking pictures, Valeria wanted to pose only with her purse and necklace on. When we came in, Lera was watching cartoons sitting on the hospital bed with a port for the intravenous chemotherapy. It is so shocking to realize that a 3-year-old child understands she must be seated calm with a tube instead of running around, laughing, and making mess. And we are also very proud of Eugenia, Valeria’a mom, who knows and strongly believes it all will be well. Dear Eugenia, we also believe in it!

 

  

 

Now I would like to ask all of you, please, let’s help this little one, let’s do all we can and not waste time. We have only 28 days, and we have only 22k Euros out of 100k required to start the treatment at the German clinic in Munster.

Valeria’s birthday in coming soon. On August 17th 2009 she’ll turn 3. The best present we can make her is to give a Hope to live!”

You can read the original documents from the clinic in Munster (in German) here:

http://lerahelp.ucoz.ru/photo/2-0-20-3

http://lerahelp.ucoz.ru/photo/2-0-21-3

http://lerahelp.ucoz.ru/photo/2-0-22-3