Can we the cost of a human life be calculated?

17-year-old Andriy entered a financial college but instead of studying he is hospitalized at the Cancer Institute with a diagnosis of Ewing’s sarcoma. The young man underwent the main treatment in his native Ivano-Frankivsk. And now Andriy is in Kyiv because only here one can receive high-dose chemotherapy with a transplant of stem cells. One can receive it theoretically, since without accompanying medication, antifungal drugs and antibiotics, it is not possible to start the cycle. After all, all blood indices are very low, and the smallest infection will be deadly. The medical bill is almost twenty-eight thousand UAH which is an impossible amount for the family from a small village.

As it often happens, Andriy got wrong diagnoses: when he had a knee pain, arthritis was treated, then tuberculosis. The local doctor saw small spots on the lungs in the images and sent the boy to a tuberculosis dispensary. After three weeks Andriy’s condition abruptly deteriorated and the knee got very swollen. Then the parents turned to the surgeon who sent them to the oncologist. The diagnosis was Ewing’s sarcoma with metastases in the lungs. The doctors took those metastases for tuberculosis. Time has been lost but Andriy struggles hard for his life. High-dose chemotherapy with transplantation is a chance for him. You can give him this chance!

Name: Andriy Holodniuk, 10.12.2000

City: Chernelytsia village, Ivano-Frankivsk region

Diagnosis: Ewing’s sarcoma