To breathe for her son’s sake. Stage 2

Every intake of breath is a counterstrike in the fight against death, which attacks every second. Have you even heard about cystic fibrosis? Or that there are about 800 people with this disease in Ukraine? Our Alena Tara is one of them. The disease itself cannot be cured, but proper treatment can give a patient several extra decades of life. Alena has a little son, long-awaited and dearly loved, and moderately severe form of cystic fibrosis. The oxygen saturation is at the lower normal limit and sometimes even lower; in addition, cardiac problems have appeared.

We have already written about Alena in 2013. You helped us raise the sum that enabled us to pay for the course of antibiotics for in-patient treatment and buy drugs that make it easier for her to breathe, for the sake of her newborn (and, which is most important, healthy) baby.

Timely treatment is very important, since it reduces the risk of exacerbations, which are becoming increasingly difficult to endure. This is how Alena describes them, “The cold caught me, and oh, it was so dreadful, I just couldn’t get out of bed for three days, couldn’t even stand up. I felt as if there was a fire in my chest, and all my bones ached, and I nearly coughed out all my insides. I was so frightened, it was the first time I felt so terrible. I decided to go to the Lviv CF center, to my supervising physicians. While I was travelling by train, I doubted that I would make it to the hospital, it was just so awful. The oxygen saturation fell down to 87 (the lower normal limit is 90), they put me on the oxygen device at once and started treatment, and I spent 17 days at hospital. My record time.”

Breath is like atomic energy for people with cystic fibrosis: any inaccurate or inattentive attitude to it may lead to a disaster.

What does Alena need now?

To get an in-patient course of intensive treatment. Winter is coming, and any respiratory or viral infection may bring unexpected and disastrous consequences. To find money for the next such course in summer.

The first step to happiness is health. The will to get the proper treatment is a chance to preserve a better health. Alena has a good chance to live a wonderful and happy life, even if it may probably be shorter than the average lifespan. Shouldn't we help her?

Name: Olena I. Tara, born 03.07.1987

Location: Uzhgorod

Diagnosis: cystic fibrosis with pancreatic insufficiency. Chronic bronchitis with obstructive component exacerbation. Pneumofibrosis, multiple bronchiectasis. Cholestatic hepatitis. Hypoplasia of the gallbladder. Cholelithiasis. Impaired glucose tolerance. Bilateral inguinal hernia