Katya, 15 years old, has a very tired heart. A healthy 15-year-old has blood circulation of 2.8 litres per minute. Katya has two times less.
Photo: Alexander Smirnov
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A Heart Too Big
// Katya Mikhailova urgently needs heart transplantation
Being kept in a hospital ward, Katya is drawing. She draws well. Her choice of theme is absolutely random. Depends on her mood, she says. So it might be the landscape behind the hospital’s window, or the sun rising above the sea: last year, Katya with her mother Margarita went to Anapa resort. If a landscape can be called kind-hearted, here is that very type.
“Was it the first time that you saw the sea?” I ask. “How did you like it?”
Katya doesn’t answer right away. She smiles.
“The sea is huge,” she says. “And it seems to me the sea is kind-hearted, even when it’s stormy.”
“Do you see only good sides in everything?”
Katya shrugs her shoulders. But the smile doesn’t leave her face.
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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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Mother Rita says that all Katya’s friends, older sister Liza, and Russian spaniel Pirat adore the girl. Rita thinks it is because Katya was born under a good Zodiac sign, Libra. She is open-minded, amicable, cheerful. The last six years, which can actually be called a ‘nightmare’, made the girl just slightly pensive. Perhaps, it’s not just the Zodiac sign.
Serious troubles began when Katya was nine. She had complained before that her chest hurts. But when she reached nine, it suddenly became much worse. Pains grew stronger. Katya was running out of breath when walking up the stairs. She began having strong colds very often. Once she coughed so badly that blood came out of her mouth. Tuberculosis hospital said that the girl’s lungs are all right. They said the trouble is with her heart. Tomsk institute of cardiology made the diagnosis right away. However, the doctors said they cannot help. They just don’t do heart transplantation in Russia. The only thing Russian doctors could do for Katya was to implant a cardiostimulator into her heart in 2003, so as to support the girl’s blood circulation at least at some speed. To support her life. Now the doctors can only help Katya to feel “more or less OK”. Yet, she feels worse and worse. Just two years ago, she went to cardiocenter for medical examination. Since last year, she is put to hospital every three months. She needs transplantation.
Clinic of Italian city of Bergamo undertakes to carry out the operation. Success probability of the transplantation in this clinic is 90 percent. It is the best index among other European clinics. However, the operation and associated examination cost ˆ46,000. The Mikhailovy family have never seen such amounts of money. Mother Rita has hardly paid out debts for the cardiostimulator. But that operation was ten times cheaper. Rita is a common employee. She is bringing up two daughters on her own: her husband died back in 1995. The family recently had to move from a hostel to a rented apartment, -- just because the hostel’s wet air became harmful for Katya.
“Aren’t you afraid of the operation?” I state rather than ask. I begin to realize that she is not afraid of anything since long ago.
“It’s OK,” says Katya without hesitation. But then she gives in to despair a little bit.
“I’m very tired, you know. I’m tired of living like that! If I need operation – let it be operation!” But then she collects herself.
“I’m an optimist. If I need operation, I’ll believe that everything will be all right.”
Katya speaks so, that I believe.
“And I’d like to see that Italian tower askew, and how oranges grow on trees. If it’s possible, of course,” she adds however, and smiles charmingly again.
If it’s possible. If it’s possible, I keep saying, even having left Katya’s ward and listening to Tomsk doctors. As if as long as you see that possibility, there is still hope.
&1,317,860 rubles needed to save Katya Mikhailova
According to Tomsk cardiologist Professor Sergei Ivanov, Katya Mikhailova has a very rare diagnosis: restrictive cardiomyopathy. The disease was discovered almost by accident. Ultrasound scanning showed abrupt expansion of atrium cavities. It was since that ultrasound that Katya began complaining of weakness and heart-aches. Sick sinus syndrome was discovered: between two heartbeats, Katya had a three-second pause. A cardiostimulator was urgently implanted into the girl’s heart. Yet, cardiac failure has kept aggravating in recent years. “Therapy is absolutely ineffective,” said Professor Ivanov, “heart transplantation is the only way to save Katya. But it can’t be done in Russia.”
Tomsk doctors contacted several clinics in Europe, and chose the hospital in Bergamo (Italy). This clinic did the first heart transplantation in 1985. Bergamo hospital carried out 594 heart transplantations for adults, and 126 for children. Survival rate is: 94 percent of patients for one year after transplantation and 70 percent for ten years. “Our results exceed the statistics of the list of the International Society of Heart Transplantologists,” said Bergamo surgeon Doctor Pac.
That is, if we are lucky to raise money for the operation, we will put Katya into good hands. Italian doctors set a bill of ˆ46,000. This sum covers medical examination, transplantation, and the stay in the hospital for not more than 78 days. Our permanent partner Kapital Investment Group will donate $10,000 (please go to www.rusfond.ru for details). Thus, Katya needs 1,317,860 rubles more.
Unfortunately, the Italian hospital cannot accept scattered donations, and insists on a one-time transfer of the entire sum. It makes it harder. Meanwhile, the cost of saving Katya is very high, and it would be extremely sad to lose even small donations. Each of your donations is literally precious. Our suggestion is to make private donations to Moscow Sberbank account of Katya’s mother Margarita Vasyagina. Companies can transfer money to the account of the Help charity fund (established by Kommersant Publishing House and Lev Ambinder, head of the Russian Fund of Help). Please feel free to obtain the banking details from the fund.
Expert group of the Russian Fund of Help
Andrey Kozenko
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 09, 2007
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