Gift of Life for Victoria

This cheerful girl of 25 years is currently paralyzed and in intensive care far away from home due to a diving accident. Family is trying to raise money to see her for Christmas and pay medical expenses in an attempt to save her life.

Viktoria Zhukova was born in 1988 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. She became the second child in the family. Vika's (sweet name for Victoria in Russia) mom had to raise her and her elder sister (Natalia) single handedly; however both the girls grew up surrounded in a loving and caring environment. They became a close, tight unit of 3 women, looking after each other. So Vika grew to be very cheerful girl, she made others smile, and always the soul of any gathering. All her friends unanimously believe that Vika is a person who knows how to live & love life ... No matter wherever she appeared, in her presence people immediately felt happy. It was this way while at the University and also with colleagues at work...
A dreadful tragedy struck Vika, this very bright and cheerful girl one month before Christmas. Far away from home, Vika is now paralyzed and in intensive care.
While vacationing in Phuket, Thailand on 30.11.2013, Vika had a diving accident and she injured her cervical spine, resulting in burst fracture of the sixth cervical vertebra. She was taken to the city hospital of Phuket - "Vachira Phuket Hospital", where the surgery took place on 01.12.13. Her fifth, sixth and seventh vertebrae have been joined together with plate and screws.
Despite the surgery, till date Vika is unable to breathe independently (she's on mechanical ventilation of lungs) and is suffering from pneumonia, which further complicates matters. But, because she is madly in love with life, she still struggles to extricate herself, free herself from the various tubes and pipes! For two weeks, while being in the intensive care unit, Vika began to move the shoulder joints, she sometimes can already scratch her nose with the back of her hand "“ taking into consideration the extent of her injuries, the doctor's believe that this is a miracle, and all of Vika's friends attribute this completely to Vika's tremendous willpower and love of life.
But, unfortunately, willpower is not going to be enough to make this a real miracle. In Russia, people with such a diagnosis just cannot be put back on their feet ... these are people who remain disabled for life and are called "immobile patients." They are discriminated and left to their own devices, which has just been recently criticized by Human Rights Watch (bit.ly/1dlysdb)
Victoria's family was offered treatment in Israel. In order to transport there a paralyzed patient on mechanical ventilation, a large amount of money is required, in addition to the cost of the clinic for estimated three months of treatment and rehabilitation. A total sum of USD $500,000 needs to be arranged. For any individual this is a lot of money, but for one family - it's almost a prohibitive amount. All of Vika's friends are trying to help her and her family, but have been unable to raise even one fifth of this amount. Knowing how much Vika loves life and wants to live, they are trying their hardest. It is for this same reason that we have decided to turn to you for help! We desire to fly Vika's family to Israel to be with her for Christmas as that will be a truly amazing moral support and to also help them pay hospitalization bills in Israel.
We also have a fundraising page on the Russian social media web site (https://vk.com/club62650144), where we are doing our best and Victoria's sister updates on her health condition.
As a close friend of her sister Natalia, I took over the responsibility of trying a fundraising campaign on other web sites. We want to be as transparent as we can, and we will continue providing updates on Vika's health condition and the funds raised on all of the websites, and cross link them. For all questions and any kind of information you can always contact me and Natalia directly. Please send me a private message and I will respond with our contact details. We thank you for taking time to look at our pledge, any prayer, positive thought or donation! Blessings!