HELP Maria see her kids again!
Donation protected
Let me tell you about my wife – Maria: she is 31 years old, and we have two children.
She had to celebrate her 31st birthday between two chemotherapy courses in a separate apartment so as not to catch a cold from her children. A common cold is dangerous when a person is undergoing chemotherapy.
In February 2018, Maria was pregnant with a second child. Everything was fine. We just lived and enjoyed life.
One day she noticed a little lump on her neck. Maria visited a doctor and was told to do a chest ultrasound (she started coughing quite often) and biopsy.
An ultrasound showed that my wife already had a tumor behind the lung. Biopsy showed that it was a malignant one (cancer or lymphoma).
Symptoms rapidly increased: acute shortness of breath, more frequent coughing, and swelling of the neck. She was urgently hospitalized in the oncology department of the city hospital of Novosibirsk № 1 . A swollen lymph node was surgically removed, and a more accurate biopsy was performed.
The situation was dangerous for both the mother and her unborn baby. Doctors decided to have a C-section. So, in week 26, weighing 900 grams, our son Arthur was born.
Mom and a child spent together just a few days. Then Maria was hospitalized at Novosibirsk City Hospital No. 2, hematology department. She was diagnosed with B-cell lymphoma. Chemotherapy started immediately.
Baby Arthur was urgently hospitalized at Children's Hospital No. 4 in Novosibirsk , intensive care unit.
The situation was very serious. I was told that Maria had a 50% chances of success. Thus, the overall probability that both would survive was about 25%. Nonetheless, Maria and Arthur were saved at that time. Baby Arthur, being premature, had serious eye problems. We treated him in Moscow once and Saint-Petersburg twice. In addition, he had slowed down his motor activity and was given special massages to catch up with. Maria was in remission. We started living like we used to before. We started to forget about this hell little by little. But it did not last long.
In December 2018, the first symptoms of lymphoma recurrence began. At that time, we did not know then that the disease had moved to the brain. Maria felt rare mild dizziness. Sometimes she had a slight headache. Sometimes she felt nausea.
At first, we thought that it was something like asthenic syndrome. Maria was recovering after a terrible disease and toxic chemotherapy. But the symptoms did not go away. Instead, they were gradually increasing. Maria's attending doctor recommended her to visit a neurologist and to have an MRI. So she did.
No one expected it to be a relapse of lymphoma. The fact is that before the MRI, Maria had a CT scan of the chest and no sights of the disease were detected. Moreover, no one expected a relapse to occur in the brain.
Maria was urgently hospitalized in the hematology department of Novosibirsk City Hospital No. 2 where she took two courses of chemotherapy.
Unfortunately, at that time, the treatment failed. The second MRI revealed that the tumor even increased despite chemotherapy. Novosibirsk doctors did not know what to do. Maria was in a severe condition. She was left weeks or even days, and we had to do something urgently. We were told that brain edema with fatal outcomes could occur at any time.
Our friends helped us find Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital in Seoul. Local doctors agreed to take us, and we urgently flew there on June 30th. Maria was comprehensively diagnosed with CT, PET-CT, MRI, cerebrospinal fluid puncture and bone marrow puncture. Additional foci of disease were detected in the spinal cord. When the diagnosis was over, Maria got into a coma and was transferred to the ICU. There she received radiation therapy to get out of the coma and stabilize. Two days later, she came out of a coma.
Now her condition is stable. She receives chemotherapy, taking into account the treatment in Russia. We are waiting for the next MRI on August 26th to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment.
Korean medicine is funded much more than medicine in Russia. As a result, it is a competitive medicine, with the most advanced methods of diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of the patient being applied. Moreover, Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital, Seoul is one of the best hospitals in Korea. If we had not come here, Maria would have passed already.
But treatment in Korea is very expensive for Russians. We would never be able to pay for this. We asked everyone who knows Maria or me through social media to help. Many people in Russia responded and helped us financially.
The total expected cost of treatment is about $170000. We have already raised $100000. But in Russia, raising this sum is a real challenge. A single person in America earns per year as much as ten people in Russia do. Therefore, one small donation made in US dollars could be a great contribution to saving my wife!
The final cost of treatment cannot be determined now, as there is uncertainty about the effectiveness of chemotherapy. The next two MRI investigations (head and lumbar) are scheduled for August 27 and 28.
For my part, I pledge to keep you updated on how things are going. I will also provide all the necessary documentation from Russian and Korean hospitals.
I beg you to help me save Maria and let our children see mom!
She had to celebrate her 31st birthday between two chemotherapy courses in a separate apartment so as not to catch a cold from her children. A common cold is dangerous when a person is undergoing chemotherapy.
In February 2018, Maria was pregnant with a second child. Everything was fine. We just lived and enjoyed life.
One day she noticed a little lump on her neck. Maria visited a doctor and was told to do a chest ultrasound (she started coughing quite often) and biopsy.
An ultrasound showed that my wife already had a tumor behind the lung. Biopsy showed that it was a malignant one (cancer or lymphoma).
Symptoms rapidly increased: acute shortness of breath, more frequent coughing, and swelling of the neck. She was urgently hospitalized in the oncology department of the city hospital of Novosibirsk № 1 . A swollen lymph node was surgically removed, and a more accurate biopsy was performed.
The situation was dangerous for both the mother and her unborn baby. Doctors decided to have a C-section. So, in week 26, weighing 900 grams, our son Arthur was born.
Mom and a child spent together just a few days. Then Maria was hospitalized at Novosibirsk City Hospital No. 2, hematology department. She was diagnosed with B-cell lymphoma. Chemotherapy started immediately.
Baby Arthur was urgently hospitalized at Children's Hospital No. 4 in Novosibirsk , intensive care unit.
The situation was very serious. I was told that Maria had a 50% chances of success. Thus, the overall probability that both would survive was about 25%. Nonetheless, Maria and Arthur were saved at that time. Baby Arthur, being premature, had serious eye problems. We treated him in Moscow once and Saint-Petersburg twice. In addition, he had slowed down his motor activity and was given special massages to catch up with. Maria was in remission. We started living like we used to before. We started to forget about this hell little by little. But it did not last long.
In December 2018, the first symptoms of lymphoma recurrence began. At that time, we did not know then that the disease had moved to the brain. Maria felt rare mild dizziness. Sometimes she had a slight headache. Sometimes she felt nausea.
At first, we thought that it was something like asthenic syndrome. Maria was recovering after a terrible disease and toxic chemotherapy. But the symptoms did not go away. Instead, they were gradually increasing. Maria's attending doctor recommended her to visit a neurologist and to have an MRI. So she did.
No one expected it to be a relapse of lymphoma. The fact is that before the MRI, Maria had a CT scan of the chest and no sights of the disease were detected. Moreover, no one expected a relapse to occur in the brain.
Maria was urgently hospitalized in the hematology department of Novosibirsk City Hospital No. 2 where she took two courses of chemotherapy.
Unfortunately, at that time, the treatment failed. The second MRI revealed that the tumor even increased despite chemotherapy. Novosibirsk doctors did not know what to do. Maria was in a severe condition. She was left weeks or even days, and we had to do something urgently. We were told that brain edema with fatal outcomes could occur at any time.
Our friends helped us find Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital in Seoul. Local doctors agreed to take us, and we urgently flew there on June 30th. Maria was comprehensively diagnosed with CT, PET-CT, MRI, cerebrospinal fluid puncture and bone marrow puncture. Additional foci of disease were detected in the spinal cord. When the diagnosis was over, Maria got into a coma and was transferred to the ICU. There she received radiation therapy to get out of the coma and stabilize. Two days later, she came out of a coma.
Now her condition is stable. She receives chemotherapy, taking into account the treatment in Russia. We are waiting for the next MRI on August 26th to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment.
Korean medicine is funded much more than medicine in Russia. As a result, it is a competitive medicine, with the most advanced methods of diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of the patient being applied. Moreover, Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital, Seoul is one of the best hospitals in Korea. If we had not come here, Maria would have passed already.
But treatment in Korea is very expensive for Russians. We would never be able to pay for this. We asked everyone who knows Maria or me through social media to help. Many people in Russia responded and helped us financially.
The total expected cost of treatment is about $170000. We have already raised $100000. But in Russia, raising this sum is a real challenge. A single person in America earns per year as much as ten people in Russia do. Therefore, one small donation made in US dollars could be a great contribution to saving my wife!
The final cost of treatment cannot be determined now, as there is uncertainty about the effectiveness of chemotherapy. The next two MRI investigations (head and lumbar) are scheduled for August 27 and 28.
For my part, I pledge to keep you updated on how things are going. I will also provide all the necessary documentation from Russian and Korean hospitals.
I beg you to help me save Maria and let our children see mom!
Organizer
Valerii Silantev
Organizer
Maple, ON
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