Requires:rehabilitation course in the medical center “Sakura” (Chelyabinsk), worth 294,900 rubles.
Diagnosis: cerebral palsy, spastic tetraparesis, optic nerve partial atrophy in both eyes, symptomatic epilepsy, developmental delay.
The hardships that Karina’s family had to face came as a bombshell. There were no complications during the pregnancy. At 33-34 weeks the mother had a regular ultrasound which proved that everything was fine. However, on the following day her water broke which led to emergency childbirth. A baby daughter was born weighing 2,250g and 48cm tall. She took a breath and cried. She got a 8-9 Apgar score. But the pediatrician on duty for some reason put her on a ventilator and induced a coma to the baby. As a result, the baby developed bilateral pneumonia, cerebral hemorrhage, optic atrophy in both eyes.
From her mother’s letter:
“Our whole life turned into a struggle. At first we took regular treatment courses in our hometown. Then, based only on EEG deviations, the doctor prescribed anti-seizure drugs which caused seizures – sometimes up to 17 times a day! I shudder when I recollect those days. It’s the worst thing I’ve ever had to survive. We travelled to get doctors’ advice to Moscow, Novozybkov in Bryansk Oblast and St. Petersburg. My baby got a lot of injections, plenty of expensive German medicine and endless exercises at home.
My husband is the only breadwinner. I’m trying to help my kid. We were lucky to find a great rehabilitation clinic – and Karina started demonstrating amazing results. She began to crawl and walk standing on her feet and holding someone’s hand. But she still can’t sit – her muscles are too weak. Despite my girl’s efforts there are some challenges with motor skills, too.
Karina is a smart girl. She loves listening to music. She smiles a lot and sometimes gets naughty as any other kid. My daughter is very emotional. She understands speech which is addressed to her, but she can only pronounce a very limited number of words: “mom”, “dad”, “granny”, “pain”, “da”, “net”. Our main target now is to develop her speech skills – when she can’t say what exactly hurts and keeps crying helplessly, we can’t help her.
She’s had four courses in “Sakura” medical center, and we can see good dynamics. But we have financial difficulties: I don’t work and we save up our social benefits to buy some rehabilitation equipment or medicine, pay for therapeutic horse riding sessions, trips and accommodation as well as rehabilitation courses.
We dream of getting help from the experts of the center “Rodnik” (Spring) in St. Petersburg. It’s a glimmer of hope for another step forward. We must keep on trying – cerebral palsy is tricky: if you stop, skills get forgotten. We need to fix the results and improve by developing new skills. We keep on practicing actions and my daughter learnt to grab some objects – she has already achieved quite a lot. She understands everything and tries to do her best.
After a rehabilitation course we hope that Karina will start moving around and take part in dialogues and conversation. That will mean a new life for us. We know that walking skills help to activate brain work.
It’s our dream to hear our daughter waking up in the morning and saying, “Good morning, mom”. It’s already been years, but we shouldn’t give up. Physical health defines our child’s future life. I can’t imagine what babies who suffer from spasticity feel. It’s a scary thought.
Please help us to take a rehabilitation course!”
The fund is launching a fundraising campaign to help Karina!
In case the funds raised to treat a particular child exceed the required amount, the balance shall be used to cover treatment for other children and other expenses associated with the present program (Clause 1.6.3 of the “Regulations on the charity program of targeted help “Shag Navstrechu” (Take a Step).
