Anastasiia wants to walk!

Anastasia Dmytrieva was born on December 18, 2014, in Khmelnytsky Regional Perinatal Center. Due to difficult labor and a medical error, the girl was born in a critical condition and was brought back to life with an adrenaline injection. The following two weeks Nastia spent in intensive care on a ventilator. Then, in spite of her difficult condition the girl together with her mother were transferred to Khmelnytsky Children’s Hospital’s pathology department, where Anastasia was placed in intensive care and was connected to a ventilator again.

The little girl’s life started with pain and challenges. For the first four months of her life, Anastasia was tube-fed because she was unable to swallow. A medical examination conducted in the hospital has shown subluxations of the cervical spine, and the child was diagnosed with perinatal damage of the central nervous system, hypoxic genesis movement disorders syndrome and convulsive disorder.

Knowing the daughter’s diagnosis, her parents took her to the National Children Specialized Hospital “OHMATDET” in Kyiv. At that point, the desperate parents encountered new challenges: application to hospitalize their child was turned down more than once. Several times the girl was transferred from one hospital to another. After a month of exhausting transportations and medical treatment, acute kidney damage was added to the list of Anastasia’s diseases.

“Being left alone with our problem, we began taking Anastasia to therapeutic massage courses. I asked therapists what was wrong with my daughter and why she was crying all the time. Some of them said that she had a severe CNS damage, others said that she had cervical spine trauma. We were not allowed to take an X-ray of her neck until she was one-year-old, but we insisted on it and we saw that the subluxations of the cervical spine she had when she was born were still there", said her mom.

Anastasia’s family managed to raise money for her rehabilitation in Lviv Rehabilitation Center named after Dr. Koziavkin on their own. For five days Nastia was receiving massage therapy, undergoing exercise therapy and spine correction. Finally, the long-awaited progress was achieved: the child became more independent and more active, started moving her arms and legs. Three months later the parents managed to repeat the treatment course, which lasted 10 days. After the course, Anastasia was able to roll over onto her stomach on her own.The struggle for Anastasia’s healthy childhood continues.

“Every day we do exercises at home. We visit the pool regularly because it makes Nastia feel good: she smiles more often these days,” says Liudmyla, Anastasia’s mother. There are positive changes in Nastia’s condition: she begins to speak, she can hold her head better, she tries to crawl and can stand on all fours. To achieve full recovery the girl must undergo spine correction in International Clinic of Rehabilitation in Truskavets four times a year. Unfortunately, the family can’t afford the expensive treatment. Let’s help Anastasia recover and enjoy her childhood the way all the healthy kids do!

Name: Dmytriieva Anastasia, 18.12.2014

City: Lisohirka village, Khmelnytskyi region

Diagnosis: persistent effects of birth trauma, spastic tetraparesis, delayed psychomotor development