Help Zutkovic family pay for Lenka's therapies

Hi, my name is Nikola Panic, I'm living in Austin TX, but originally I'm from a small town in Serbia, I'm reaching out to you to help Lenka Zutkovic a Serbian child who experienced brain damage. Her family needs assistance with paying for extensive therapies. I've found out about her needs when her family asked for help from the Serbian community in Austin. I hope that you will be moved to contribute to this fund and be part of Lenka's recovery. The plan is to raise $80 000 which is enough for them to be covered for a year with all expenses that Zutkovic   family have while being here and getting the necessary treatments.

https://www.facebook.com/Za-Lenkino-bolje-sutra-107310934482991/?ti=as
https://www.facebook.com/jelena.grubanovzutkovic 

Lenka’s story

Lenka was a typical healthy and happy toddler in February 2020. She loved to play her piano, and she liked to play with her blocks. She made everything from blocks. She was a little engineer like her daddy. She adored her younger sister Sofija and her dog Lili.

When she was 17 months old, our world, our whole life, turned upside down.

Lenka got laryngitis. A Serbian pediatrician came to see her at our house and said that she was ok, don’t worry. But, somehow, I knew that something wasn’t ok. I didn’t like the way she was breathing at all. My husband and I took her to the ER in our town. There a doctor said that she was ok, but if we wanted to, we should take her to the hospital. We went to a children’s hospital in Novi Sad, Serbia. There we got the same story: medical staff said that there was nothing really wrong with her. But we stayed in the hospital because of her very low oxygen saturation: 86 %.

The hospital staff put us in a room. While we were in the room, I remember (and I will always have that memory in my mind) that Lenka gave me her jacket and her shoes so that I could put them on her, and we could leave that horrible hospital. She could probably feel that they wouldn’t help her there.

During the whole night, we were there, she was struggling for breath. I called for the doctors so many times. Only one doctor came in one time and told me: “She doesn’t like to be in the hospital. She is very spoiled, and you should keep her stimulated, sing a song for her.” For God’s sake, how could someone who is struggling for breath be called spoiled, how could a doctor say something like that? I was so desperate. We were in a hospital, and nobody helped us. Lenka fought for her life all night.

Early in the morning of the next day, as I held her in my arms, she stopped breathing. Her heart stopped. The hospital staff didn’t know who would resuscitate her. They didn’t know where the oxygen supplies were. Everyone in the hospital was rushing around trying to find supplies for her. A well-known (“famous”) doctor finally came, stood in front of us, put her hands on her hips, and just stared at Lenka. I couldn’t believe what was happening. I couldn’t believe that my daughter was playing the day before, and now she was dead.

Lenka was finally resuscitated. After she was breathing, the nurse came out and said: the procedure is over. I was speechless. I literally could not speak for a couple of days. I was in shock. The hospital staff said that she was without oxygen for ten minutes. I’m not sure about that. They didn’t let me be with her while she was in intensive care. The documents regarding her care which we received from hospital staff were stolen from me by hospital staff while I was in the hospital room. I believe they stole the documents so they could change information and state that they did everything to help Lenka, but in spite of their care, she stopped breathing. I have no words for them, for the negligence they showed in caring for my daughter.

After eight days in the hospital, the staff let me be with her. I didn’t recognize my daughter. Her body was spasming. She was being fed through a nasal tube. She had lost control of all bodily functions. I couldn’t put clothes on her because her body was spasming and sweating. Lenka was in a coma for four and half months. During that time, the medical staff told me that she would never be better, that she would be a vegetable. They told me to leave her in some institution.. I was so desperate. I couldn’t imagine that doctors whose responsibility it was to care for children should behave as those doctors did. While she was in coma vigil (unconscious but eyes are open), her heartbeat was more than 230 BPM. A nurse came in in our room and switched off the sound. The staff wanted to put a G (gastrointestinal) tube in her for feeding. During that whole time, Lenka was fighting for her life, and it was a fight for me and my husband to behave normally.

At some point, I realized that we should leave the hospital and take charge of Lenka’s recovery on our own. A doctor in Nis, Serbia arranged for Lenka to receive an oxygen saturation treatment in a hyperbaric chamber. After that treatment, she was more aware and showed signs of improvement. We have already accomplished a lot for her through treatments in the U.S., but it will actually take years for her to recover, and it will be very expensive for us. She may not return to being a fully functioning child, but we believe she is capable of recovering enough to lead a successful life.

As of 2021 because of therapies she has received in the U.S., Lenka is not in coma vigil. She can eat by mouth; she can smile; she can vocalize; she responds to touch, light, spoken words, and music. She is not a vegetable. Serbian doctors in the hospital where she was treated don’t know that she can eat and smile now.

Lenka is under the care of a doctor at the Austin Brain Center for the Developing Mind where she is receiving neuro-intensive treatments and has also received stem cell treatments at Total Welness Medical Center in Arizona. Every day that of treatment in the U.S. brings something new to help her recover her brain and body functioning. Doctors are very optimistic about her recovery.

We know that she needs ongoing therapies and that new ones need to be tried and that they are expensive. We have already maxed out our limited financial resources. There is no health insurance available to us, and the Serbian government actively prevents us from obtaining the medical equipment needed for her recovery. Also, Lenka has a 2-year-old sister whom we have had to leave behind in Serbia when we bring Lenka to the U.S., and she needs our care and presence. There is nothing for her or us in Serbia that will contribute to her recovery. In fact, the Serbian medical system would prefer that Lenka returns to a vegetative state.

We are confident that day by day, step by step, she will improve. We ask that you be a part of Lenka’s recovery, be a part of bringing her back to living.

Lenka’s parents: Jelena and Nikola Zutkovic