In Kemerovo Katya was diagnosed with heart tumor. As they cut her chest, the doctors saw such a big tumor that they only shook their heads and had to sew it up. Then Katya was taken to Moscow and Israel, but the doctors there would only confirm the diagnosis and shake their heads, just like those in Kemerovo.
Photo: Yakov Andreev
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
To live, it hurries, and to feel it hastes
// Katya, 3, needs a complex operation on her heart
Katya Balods from the town of Prokopyevsk, the Kemerov region, is a smart and charming kid. We even danced with her in the Tomsk cardio-center. But Katya has a rare and life-threatening diagnosis – heart tumor. The risk of sudden death is pretty high. The tumor can be removed, but it’s not clear whether this can be performed with the heart saved. So you can’t rule out the possibility of heart transplantation. She’s going to be operated in Bergamo, Italy. The Bergamo doctors have once saved our Katya Mikhaylova, and now they are waiting for her namesake to come. But will Katya Balods set off for Italy? Her mother and grandmother have already sold everything they could to get the money for the operation.
No sooner had I met her than I knew: Katya is a green-eyed angel. …With her face buried in the grandmother’s shoulder as if she were unwilling to let the photographer and me see her, Katya seems to be a “shyness champion,” but your first impression is wrong as usual. “At first I am very shy,” – she utters in a queen’ tone as she turns to us. “Then I’ll seize to be shy and begin talking to you. But the time hasn’t come yet.” That’s what she says. And buries herself in her grandmother’s shoulder again. I’m so much embarrassed that I’m about to bow to her.
Lyudmila Gennadyevna, Katya’s grandmother, says that the first signs of the disease were detected in her native town of Prokopyevsk, as she was 4 months. But the doctors couldn’t perform a thorough checkup because the restless girl was fidgeting when exposed to the special equipment. She wanted to have fun, not undergo treatment.
|
|
i
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.
The Russian Aid Fund
Address: P.O. Box 50, 125252 Moscow, Russia
www.rusfond.ru
e-mail: rfp@kommersant.ru
Telephone: +7 (095) 943-9135
Telephone/fax: +7 (095) 158-6904
|
|
|
In the Kemerovo cardio-center the diagnosis was made – heart tumor. The doctors were about to perform an operation, but when they cut the chest, they saw such a big tumor that they could only shake their heads and sew it up. In Russia complex operations on children’s hearts are rarely performed, and in this case you even couldn’t be sure whether to remove the tumor, or transplant a donor heart. Katya is really unique: the cases of heart tumor have been described in special literature, but hardly any doctor has ever had patients with it. Katya was taken to Haifa, Israel, then to the Bakulev Cardio-center, Moscow. Doctors confirmed the diagnosis, recommended heart transplantation, and only shook their heads, just like the doctors in Kemerovo.
Because of the tumor, Katya’s heart is too unstable. Doctors opine it poses threat to the girl’s life. Tachycardia and arrhythmia grow progressively worse, the girl’s getting weaker.
The Baldoses spent all their money on the checkup – Katya’s mother, Ksenia, earns 5,000 roubles a month, and besides she has another child. Her husband, willing to avoid the hardship, left the family and even refuses to pay alimony. “Katya used to wonder where her father was and when he would come back. And then she gave it up,” says the distressed Lyudmila Gennadyevna. The family had to sell their apartment to get the money for the treatment.
Katya has been under observation in the Tomsk Cardio-center for half a year already. The doctors here considered a possibility of implanting a special device in Katya’s heart, which could allow for decrease in tachycardia. But then they had to abandon the idea: the heart is too unstable, it beats so fast in the daytime, whereas at night you can hardly hear it. The device may fail to cope with the heart.
Last year the doctors from the Italian Bergamo clinic transplanted a donor’s heart to Katya Mikhaylova, from the Tomsk region; now they’re waiting for Katya Balods to come to them. Katya Mikhaylova was cured, and this fall she’s going back to Russia. But her namesake’s disease is more complex. Katya Balods will need to undergo observation in a special clinic in Milan, and then she’ll have to stay in a Bergamo ward for quite a long time. And of course, money will be needed, which the family lacks.
…The girl has buried her face in the grandmother’s shoulder, and won’t turn to us.
“Katya, honey,” I plea. “I had to travel quite a distance to see you. Let’s talk a little bit, come and sit here, and talk to me, all right? Or you will only sulk and keep silent?”
“OK,” she finally gives her consent. “We may talk. But not that long. I’m feeling dozy.”
And then she suddenly changes her mind, “You’d better walk with me to the window-sill.”
I take her by the arm, and we walk slowly along the long corridor of the hospital. I’d say it’s me who walks slowly, and Katya walks dancing in front of me. There is a few meters left before we reach the window, and suddenly Katya frowns, squats down, and I notice a tear on her cheek.
“What’s wrong, Katya, does it hurt?” I ask her.
“I got tired walking,” she replies sobbing.
With my ear at her chest, I listen to her heartbeat. It’s at least twice as fast as mine.
I walk from the cardio-center to the hotel, with a line spinning round in my head, “To live, it hurries, and to feel it hastes.” The three-year-old kid wouldn’t have to hurry unless her organism made her. It’s her heart that hurries. And this hurry bodes ill for the girl. She would run and play, and then fall down all of a sudden. “And one day she won’t be able to stand up,” Professor Kovalev from Tomsk told me.
Cardiologists call it “a high risk of sudden death.”
&946,772 roubles needed to rescue Katya Balods!
Half a year ago a heart tumor was detected as Katya had to undergo ultrasonic checkup. Professor Igor Kovalev of Tomsk’s Research Institute for Cardiology told us that “The initial tumor of such localization as in Katya’s case is very rare, and each case is unique. Children’s tumors are usually benign actually.” Cardiologist Kovalev presumes that “with Katya’s sort of tumor, the risk of sudden death is very high – it is estimated at 30%.” So you can’t put off the removal of the tumor anymore. But first it’s necessary for Katya to undergo checkup in a clinic specializing in performing operations on tumors as well as heart transplantation. “Perhaps, the tumor, because of its size, won’t get removed; then transplantation will be needed.”
In Russia, there are no clinics performing such operations. The Tomsk cardiologists had to turn to their Italian colleagues from Bergamo. Vitaly Pak, children’s cardiologist of the clinic, says, “During a consultation of our doctors it was concluded that Katya requires a thorough checkup. Tomography is to be carried out to find out the size and localization of the tumor. We must determine whether there is germination in the myocardium.” Depending on the results, two variants are possible: “If the tumor is benign and localized near the left ventricle, we’ll remove it and perform surgery of the ventricle. If necessary, a cardio-stimulator will be transplanted to eliminate the risk of sudden death in the future. In this case the prospects are good: the girl will stay alive leading a relatively normal way of life.” And if the tumor turns out malignant, and there is germination in the myocardium, heart transplantation will be required. This variant is unlikely, but, to rule it out, you need a thorough checkup. “Let’s hope for the better,” Doctor Pak said.
The cost of checkup, tumor removal and two months’ rehabilitation amounts to ˆ36,780. As usual, our permanent partner, Ingosstrakh, will donate 417,000 roubles. So another 949,775 roubles is needed.
The Bergamo clinic will receive the money in euros (either ˆ28,780 or ˆ20,080 and ˆ8,700). Donations in roubles can be transferred to the account of Katya’s mother, Ksenia Nikolaevna, with the Sberbank, or to the account of the “Pomoshch” (Relief) charity fund, whose founders are the Kommersant Publishing House and Lev Ambinder. You will receive a report card with the details of the money transfer.
Dear friends, we appreciate every rouble you donate! The Bergamo doctors are looking forward for Katya to come to their clinic.
Follow the link www.rusfond.ru to get more details.
Russian Aid Fund experts
Andrey Kozlenko
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 25, 2008
|
|
|
