Required: rehabilitation course in the center “Prognoz” (St. Petersburg) worth 147,000 rubles.
Diagnosis: organic brain damage, symptomatic epilepsy in remission, encephalopathy of mixed genesis, etc.
Misha from Rostov-on-Don is 3.5 years old. The boy dramatically lags behind in his development. One of his diagnoses is sensorimotor alalia which means that the kid can hardly speak and almost never understands speech addressed to him as he can’t form the connection between the sound pattern and the object it designates. Misha walks very unsteadily. He’s applied for disability benefits. And yet, experts believe that Misha has a chance to talk, walk and run if he takes regular rehabilitation courses.
It sometimes happens that a long-awaited and blessed event – the birth of a child – is followed by hardships and anguish for the baby. That’s the way it happened in the family of new-born Misha from Rostov-on-Don. The boy was born with a perinatal injury of CNS. When he was only six months old, the boy got worse after a series of massage assigned by the neurologist. Misha developed West syndrome, a severe form of infant epilepsy when seizures are hard to control and they exacerbate the situation with mental retardation.
From his mother’s letter:
“Our son has been diagnosed with organic brain damage, agenesis of the cerebellar vermis, symptomatic focal epilepsy, delayed psychological and speech development. Thank God, his seizures have gone into remission, but they have severely affected the boy’s development. My son kept a keto diet for a year, took “Ospolot” and “Zarontin” which are currently not available for sale in Russia. Due to the recent developments in the world, it is difficult to find antiepileptic and anticonvulsant drugs even at exorbitant prices…
We’ve applied for social benefits. I couldn’t get back to work after my maternity leave as my days are utterly and completely devoted to taking care of Misha. Apart from expensive drug treatment, the kid needs regular sessions with defectologist, speech therapist, neuropsychologist, as well as ABA and exercise therapy, swimming, hand therapy.
On top of that, epileptologists suggest that we should take a genetic test to clear things up, but it is available only on a paid basis. We are going above and beyond – our family has been doing our best, we’ve done and achieved quite a lot, and it’s not for nothing. Misha is demonstrating improvement. And experts believe that there is a chance to “get him back on track”. But in order to accomplish it, we need regular expensive sessions which we already can’t afford. Misha needs continuous rehabilitation whereas our family has another child!
I’m not used to asking for help. It’s hard for me. But it’s even harder to see that your near and dear, long-awaited son can’t walk, talk and just be a common kid. What hurts most it that my sonny might actually recover but my efforts are not enough. His rehabilitation requires money, which, unfortunately, is not there.
When a child with special needs enters your life, you re-evaluate a lot of things and you don’t need anything else apart from his rehabilitation and treatment. I’m certain that joint efforts of specialists will bring good results as we’ve already witnessed it happen. And my boy will be able to walk steadily, run, ride a bike, sing songs and recite poems – same as other kids do”.
The Fund has reviewed Misha’s documents and decided to support the family.
We are launching a fundraising campaign to pay for the rehabilitation course that Misha desperately needs!