Ksenya Samsonova -- Life Changed in an Instant
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Ksenya was named after a beautiful Russian Czar. Her mom brought her here the US to ensure she had access to the best healthcare to care for her diabetes.
Imagine this – your beautiful, amazing, smart child is about to graduate from UNT in one month. She has a full-time job in sales with Specs Spirits and Fine Foods, is paying taxes and has her own benefits, her own car, her own apartment. She has never done drugs or abused alcohol and is ready to take the world by storm. She’s your only child and you love her more than life itself.
At noon you speak to her about bringing her favorite lunch to the hospital where she is recovering from a minor surgery. She tells you not to come because she just ate, she did her walk around the floor and is going to get some pain medicine and take a nap. She said she loves you and she’ll see you for dinner. She sends you a beautiful picture of herself giving you a big photo kiss!
You go back to work and try to check in a couple hours later but you can’t get in touch with her. She’s not in her room or even on the same floor where she was two hours before, and she isn’t answering her cell phone. No one at the nurses’ station can tell you anything. The information desk at the hospital says there is no one there by that name. This goes on for hours. No calls you and no one that you call will tell you anything. Finally and frantically, you are able to leave work and get to the hospital where you find her in a coma in the ICU after being overdosed with opioids.
Four days later, you are told by the hospital legal team that it was their fault and they accept responsibility: all the signs were there for three days, the documentation of the patient’s protests were ignored and the revival they had performed just the day before had been “missed” by the next shift. "We are sorry. And oh, we are a public hospital so you can’t sue us. And she is never going to breathe on her own or speak or move at all, you should take her off life support."
Just imagine being in this place. This is where Gelena Verucchi and her daughter Ksenya Samsonova were in November of 2015. Just imagine it was you. It could have been any of us. Who would you reach out to for help in navigating this nightmare?
Fast forward almost four years, more long-term care facilities than you can count on two hands, and more hospital stays than that. Your now 27-year old daughter is a fighter, she is breathing on her own, she cries when you leave and when you return, you know she loves to be outside in her wheel chair and you know she gets angry. You know she is alive inside and maintain hope in miracles. You know this because you are her mom, but she can’t talk or communicate at all. So you do everything you can to make her new life as comfortable and pleasant as possible. Most importantly you and your small circle believe in miracles and trust in God's larger purpose. Many days seems hopeless and you just wait to wake up from this nightmare, but you never do. Can you imagine?
But because you never got a penny in restitution or at least to make sure she is cared for properly, you do most of the care giving. You lost your career as a women’s gymnastics coach over the care your daughter requires and are struggling to keep her on your Medicaid as a dependent. Oh, and to complicate things, she was working on getting her US citizenship when the accident occurred and now her Green card has expired so she isn’t eligible for her own benefits, which makes any kind of care a constant struggle. And you haven't worked in your new career as an insurance adjuster since January so funds have run out. Can you imagine?
This is the real-life story of Ksenya and Gelena, and after struggling for four years to make it all work, they are reaching out for help for the first time. If this story touches your heart, makes you angry or makes you cry – maybe it’s your opportunity to give back in some big or little way. Please consider if there is anything in your world that could make their world just a little easier today.
Ksenya has been receiving some Medicaid as a dependent of her mom, however it is very limited and very complicated to qualify for, given all the circumstances. Gelena also spends a lot of her own money on basic care necessities that are not provided by the facility, including bed pads and renting a special bed monthly.
Here are the details of their immeadiate needs:
$1200 -- an unexpected bill for transportation from the nursing home to the Plano courthouse and back in an unsuccessful attempt to get Ksenya’s fingerprints taken last week.
$1500 for paper work from every city Ksenya has lived in to prove she has no criminal record, and for her basic essentials like bed pads and other hygeine and comfort products that Gelena pays for herself as they are not provided by the facility.
$5,000 for an airbed (or access to a used or loaner airbed) that will keep Ksenya from suffering from bedsores and the complications that come with them. Gelena has rented this bed monthly out of her own pocket because the facilities don’t have them and Medicaid doesn’t cover it because she does not currently have bedsores. Gelena can no longer afford to rent this bed, as she has not been able to work a regular job due to the time it takes to care for her daughter.
Thank you for your consideration and please share this request with anyone you know who might have connections to any of the needs described here. We are also looking for a place that might have used air-beds or for an individual who could donate a bed for Ksenya.
As an aside, I have personally written to every personal accident lawyer in Texas and they have all refused the case because of the facility involved. We can't change the past. And no amount of money can bring her back to her mom and to her life the way it was. All we asked for was for someone to make sure that Ksenya has the very best care available so that any kind of rehabilitation that might be possible can happen and so that Gelena can continue to work and build some sort of life outside of the long-term care facilities they have been bouncing in and out of for years now.
She got nothing. She lost everything. Somehow Gelena continues to go three to five times a day to be with her only child and now she needs some help. If you can spare anything, this sweet girl and her momma would appreciate it so much.
Thank you from a friend who's daughter was the recipient of Gelena’s coaching for the majority of her early gymnastics career.

Imagine this – your beautiful, amazing, smart child is about to graduate from UNT in one month. She has a full-time job in sales with Specs Spirits and Fine Foods, is paying taxes and has her own benefits, her own car, her own apartment. She has never done drugs or abused alcohol and is ready to take the world by storm. She’s your only child and you love her more than life itself.
At noon you speak to her about bringing her favorite lunch to the hospital where she is recovering from a minor surgery. She tells you not to come because she just ate, she did her walk around the floor and is going to get some pain medicine and take a nap. She said she loves you and she’ll see you for dinner. She sends you a beautiful picture of herself giving you a big photo kiss!
You go back to work and try to check in a couple hours later but you can’t get in touch with her. She’s not in her room or even on the same floor where she was two hours before, and she isn’t answering her cell phone. No one at the nurses’ station can tell you anything. The information desk at the hospital says there is no one there by that name. This goes on for hours. No calls you and no one that you call will tell you anything. Finally and frantically, you are able to leave work and get to the hospital where you find her in a coma in the ICU after being overdosed with opioids.
Four days later, you are told by the hospital legal team that it was their fault and they accept responsibility: all the signs were there for three days, the documentation of the patient’s protests were ignored and the revival they had performed just the day before had been “missed” by the next shift. "We are sorry. And oh, we are a public hospital so you can’t sue us. And she is never going to breathe on her own or speak or move at all, you should take her off life support."
Just imagine being in this place. This is where Gelena Verucchi and her daughter Ksenya Samsonova were in November of 2015. Just imagine it was you. It could have been any of us. Who would you reach out to for help in navigating this nightmare?
Fast forward almost four years, more long-term care facilities than you can count on two hands, and more hospital stays than that. Your now 27-year old daughter is a fighter, she is breathing on her own, she cries when you leave and when you return, you know she loves to be outside in her wheel chair and you know she gets angry. You know she is alive inside and maintain hope in miracles. You know this because you are her mom, but she can’t talk or communicate at all. So you do everything you can to make her new life as comfortable and pleasant as possible. Most importantly you and your small circle believe in miracles and trust in God's larger purpose. Many days seems hopeless and you just wait to wake up from this nightmare, but you never do. Can you imagine?
But because you never got a penny in restitution or at least to make sure she is cared for properly, you do most of the care giving. You lost your career as a women’s gymnastics coach over the care your daughter requires and are struggling to keep her on your Medicaid as a dependent. Oh, and to complicate things, she was working on getting her US citizenship when the accident occurred and now her Green card has expired so she isn’t eligible for her own benefits, which makes any kind of care a constant struggle. And you haven't worked in your new career as an insurance adjuster since January so funds have run out. Can you imagine?
This is the real-life story of Ksenya and Gelena, and after struggling for four years to make it all work, they are reaching out for help for the first time. If this story touches your heart, makes you angry or makes you cry – maybe it’s your opportunity to give back in some big or little way. Please consider if there is anything in your world that could make their world just a little easier today.
Ksenya has been receiving some Medicaid as a dependent of her mom, however it is very limited and very complicated to qualify for, given all the circumstances. Gelena also spends a lot of her own money on basic care necessities that are not provided by the facility, including bed pads and renting a special bed monthly.
Here are the details of their immeadiate needs:
$1200 -- an unexpected bill for transportation from the nursing home to the Plano courthouse and back in an unsuccessful attempt to get Ksenya’s fingerprints taken last week.
$1500 for paper work from every city Ksenya has lived in to prove she has no criminal record, and for her basic essentials like bed pads and other hygeine and comfort products that Gelena pays for herself as they are not provided by the facility.
$5,000 for an airbed (or access to a used or loaner airbed) that will keep Ksenya from suffering from bedsores and the complications that come with them. Gelena has rented this bed monthly out of her own pocket because the facilities don’t have them and Medicaid doesn’t cover it because she does not currently have bedsores. Gelena can no longer afford to rent this bed, as she has not been able to work a regular job due to the time it takes to care for her daughter.
Thank you for your consideration and please share this request with anyone you know who might have connections to any of the needs described here. We are also looking for a place that might have used air-beds or for an individual who could donate a bed for Ksenya.
As an aside, I have personally written to every personal accident lawyer in Texas and they have all refused the case because of the facility involved. We can't change the past. And no amount of money can bring her back to her mom and to her life the way it was. All we asked for was for someone to make sure that Ksenya has the very best care available so that any kind of rehabilitation that might be possible can happen and so that Gelena can continue to work and build some sort of life outside of the long-term care facilities they have been bouncing in and out of for years now.
She got nothing. She lost everything. Somehow Gelena continues to go three to five times a day to be with her only child and now she needs some help. If you can spare anything, this sweet girl and her momma would appreciate it so much.
Thank you from a friend who's daughter was the recipient of Gelena’s coaching for the majority of her early gymnastics career.
Organizer
Tiffany Susan Nelson
Organizer
Plano, TX
