The girl can not sleep – suffocates

By this fall, the Katrusia family knew that the girl had a serious illness, but it had little effect on her life. Until Katya got really sick. She was completely white and was brought to the hospital with nonsurvivable oxygen levels in her blood. There were weeks spent in resuscitation and intensive care unit, Katya was on the verge, but stayed alive. Now she was dismissed home. But her lungs didn’t recover to the normal state. In order to feel good and not to have insomnia from shortness of breath, Katrusia needs the help of a portable oxygen concentrator. For an ordinary family from a small town, its value is very high. But the girl can't wait for her parents to raise money. She wants to breathe normally right now.

Katrusia's disease, cystic fibrosis, is the result of a genetic breakdown. It affects the entire body disrupting the work of the internal organs. Lungs suffer the most. Chronic infections gradually destroy them. Every respiratory disease, in this case, is more dangerous than for a normal healthy person and can dramatically and severely impair health. In cystic fibrosis, viscous sputum accumulates in the respiratory tract and coughs up badly, so breathlessness develops very quickly and it is difficult to get rid of it. 

The state of Katrusia's lungs is now such that she is recommended to be connected to the oxygen concentrator every night and sleep with it. At night, her own lungs feel the worst and now the girl cannot sleep normally. The oxygen concentrator is a rather simple mechanism. It filters almost pure oxygen directly from the surrounding air and delivers it directly to the patient's nose through special thin tubes. Due to this, the load on the lungs is minimal and the body can get all the oxygen it needs. The device is designed for about 40 thousand hours of work before major repairs and all that one needs to do during this period is to change filters in time.

We have to increase the amount that we raise for this project. Our oxygen equipment supplier whom we've been working with for the past 5 years, has failed to fulfill his delivery obligations this winter and the Foundation initiated the refund procedure this spring. Meanwhile, all of the deliveries have been put on hold for a few months due to the quarantine restrictions. Finally, we've been able to find a new supplier this summer who managed to resume the operations. The concentrator purchased for Kate is already in Ukraine, but its current cost is higher (18 600 UAH for the apparatus with filters). All this time, Kate wasn't left on her own, we've managed to borrow a device for her for temporary use, but we need to give it back, while Kate needs to be able to breathe freely.

Please help us pay for the oxygen concentrator for Katrusia. We really want the girl to forget about the shortness of breath as soon as possible.

Name: Kremen Kteryna, 29.08.2005

City: Kremenchuk

Diagnosis: cystic fibrosis with pancreatic insufficiency