Andrey often said he felt sick and did not want to go to school. His mother thought that it was just an excuse. But one day he suddenly fainted. A blood test showed that hemoglobin in Andrey’s blood was four times lower the norm, which was a sign of leucosis.
Photo: Victor Kostyukovsky
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He Needs to Grow up First
// Only a donor’s marrow can save Andrey Zhdanov
This thirteen-year-old boy has an incurable myelodysplastic syndrome. Leucosis, which develops from such a disease, is extremely difficult to cure. Unfortunately, Andrey does not have a compatible relative donor, and the Zhdanovs will need to search for healthy marrow in the international database, which will cost ˆ15,000. This search is not a state-paid service. Nor are the medicines, which should be taken before marrow transplantation and after it.
Olga, Andrey’s mother, blames herself: she didn’t discern the first signs of the disease. At that time her daughter was only three months old; she was born already sick. Olga had to take care of her daughter Tanya and her son Andrey, who often said he felt sick and did not want to go to school. Olga thought that it was just an excuse. But one day he suddenly fainted. A blood test showed that hemoglobin in Andrey’s blood was four times lower the norm, which was a sign of leucosis. Then it was found that Andrey had aplastic anemia.
Olga shouldn’t blame herself: she couldn’t have noticed the illness. The boy always looked healthy.
When I came to the Zhdanovs, Andrey had a temperature, but he smiled.
“It’s in his character,” Olga told me. “Even when it hurts, when there are tears in his eyes, he will smile.”
Now he smiles, looking at his little sister, he likes her very much.
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For those who are encountering the Russian Aid Fund for the first time
The Russian Aid Fund was founded in 1996 to assistant the authors of desperate letters sent to Kommersant. We verify the letters with the help of local authorities, then publish the letters in Kommersant, Domovoi magazine and on the site www.rusfond.ru. If you decide to help, you will receive the banking details of the authors of the letters, and the rest is up to you. You just help you help. This approach has been popular with our readers. More than $8.4 million has been collected. We also organize relief efforts during national catastrophes, for 53 families of the miners who died in the Zyryanovskaya Mine in Kuzbass, 57 families of the policemen who burned to death in Samara, 153 families of the victims of explosions in Moscow and Volgodonsk, 118 families of the sailors who died on the submarine Kursk, 52 families of the hostages who died in the seizure of the performance of Nord Ost, 39 families of those who died in the Moscow Metro on February 6, 2004, 100 families who suffered losses in Beslan. The Fund is the winner of the Silver Archer award.
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In March Andrey was taken to the leucosis chemotherapy ward of St Petersburg’s Children’s Hospital #1. His father, who had divorced with Olga, helped very much. The father stayed with his son in hospital, and the mother took care of her baby.
“Doctors told us,” Olga recollects, “that it was possible to cure aplastic anemia, but it all depended on the organism’s reaction. At first it seemed that it reacted the right way. But then tests showed worse results, and we had to apply blood transfusion, and doctors said that the illness turned into an incurable myelodysplastic syndrome.
I take a look at Andrey, who is here, in the room; he hears our conversation. Olga and her two disabled children live in a small room in a shared apartment. There are seven more people in this flat. Andrey does not react to the word “incurable” at all: he either does not understand what it means or he has got used to it.
But perhaps the boy already knows what his mother means. She means that Andrey cannot be cured with ordinary means. She knows that his only chance now is hemopoietic stem cell transplantation, in other words, transplantation of a donor’s marrow.
“You might think our room is too small,” Olga says and suddenly smiles. “There is no room for a boa here.”
“What boa?!” I ask in surprise.
“Ask Andrey: he is fond of snakes and he dreams of a boa.”
“Hey, come on, I didn’t mean it,” Andrey replies. “But we could buy a grass-snake, couldn’t we?”
As we talk with him, I learn that his favorite subjects are geography and biology. It all started with his interest in dinosaurs, which is rather common with boys of his age; and now he dreams of becoming paleo… The boy hasn’t actually memorized the name of his future profession. Probably he means paleontology, or even paleozoology, which deals with extinct animals. Andrey simply wants to travel, dig and study.
But he needs to grow up first. He hasn’t been to school since March. He has lost several contacts already. But the thing is he shouldn’t have many friends now: his immune system has been depressed after chemotherapy, which means that Andrey may fall ill very easily. And the worst thing ahead of transplantation is falling ill.
Andrey’s parents already know how much treatment costs. But they can hardly raise enouh money themselves. I met with parents of sick children many times, but I am sure that you can imagine their despair and powerlessness without my stories. Whom can a baby pin its hopes on? On parents only. But whom can they pin hopes on in their bid to raise half a million rubles?
Olga used to work in Sberbank. But she had to give up her job after problems with her children began. Her story is really tragic, especially given that her daughter Tanya seems to have cerebral paralysis.
“I thought that Andrey would recover at the stage of aplastic anemia, but then it developed into that syndrome,” Olga says, and I can see tears in her eyes. “What next?”
She asks a question no doctor can answer, not to mention Andrey or me. The boy seems to be considering something. I don’t know what he is thinking about. Perhaps he tries to guess whether his organism will manage to counter the disease or whether another stage of disease will break out, and they will need to start it all over again.
&979,900 rubles needed to rescue Andrey Zhdanov, 13.
Head of the leucosis chemotherapy ward with St Petersburg’s Children’s Hospital #1 Elmira Boichenko says that aplastic anemia is a nonmalignant disease. It is accompanied by marrow’s losing the ability to produce blood; transfusions and special treatment are required. Andrey Zhdanov had to undergo a special treatment course in March.
“Further tests showed that the disease developed into another one,” Dr Boichenko says. “Andrey now has a myelodysplastic syndrome. It is not leucosis, but the disease can easily transform into leukemia.”
According to the expert, to rescue the boy, marrow transplantation is needed, which should be followed by intensive treatment to eliminate complications in the child’s emasculated organism.
Donor search and activation at the German Morsch Foundation, which has an international donor database, will cost ˆ15,000. In addition, medicines worth 1,050,700 rubles are required. Our partner, St Petersburg’s fund Advita, will transfer ˆ5,000 to the Morsch Foundation’s account. As always, Rusfond’s permanent partner, Ingosstrakh, will donate 417,000 rubles (find more details at www.rusfond.ru). So, another 979,900 rubles is needed.
Dear friends! Andrey's parents are unable to raise such a sum themselves, which is why they turned to us. You can transfer your donations to Olga Zhdanova’s Sberbank account, to the medicine supplier, or our fund Aid, whose founders are the Kommersant publishing house and Lev Ambinder. You can find all necessary details with the fund. It is also possible to use the e-payment system (see details at www.rusfond.ru) and to make a donation via a credit card or e-money, including from abroad.
Russian Aid Fund experts
Victor Kostyukovsky
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 21, 2008
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