Help Nastia not to choke

Anastasia, 12 years of age, is a smiling, pretty girl. She loves to draw, to read, and to travel. She is taking dance lessons. Her dream job, when she grows up, is to be a journalist. Anastasia, 12 years of age, is pale – she has chronic hypoxia, the bronchiectases are getting larger, and the pulmonary hypertension is getting worse. She is dreaming about growing up. About being able to breathe easily. And all this is about the same girl. So far, it is not yet noticeable on the outside, but her lungs are damaged by a serious illness and cannot breathe normally; sometimes, Nastia can hardly breathe. She needs some help from an oxygen concentrator.

Nastia has cystic fibrosis – a severe genetic illness, which damages the entire body. This illness hits lungs harder than any other organs. A DNA defect causes a higher tenacity of sputum, which, therefore, becomes difficult to cough up and sticks to the bronchial walls. Infectious organisms take up residence in this sputum and cause chronic lung infections. Despite daily supportive treatment – medications, nebulizer treatments, breathing exercises, and special physical therapy exercises, lungs get damaged over time. It becomes harder to breathe, and after a while, the person gets hypoxic.

In such a situation, an oxygen concentrator can help the person to be able to breathe better. This device filters out pure oxygen directly out of room air and delivers it right to the person's nose. And with the help of the oxygen concentrator, one can live many more years, and not feel short of breath, and not suffer, during these years. Nastia's family is asking for our help in purchasing the medical equipment and disposable supplies, which would enable her treatment to be more effective, and would enable her to remain active. Everything that Nastia likes, all her dreams, can definitely come true. With the help of an oxygen concentrator, Nastia would be able to do all these things.

Help her get a concentrator as soon as possible!

Name: Kobzar Anastasia, 16.05.2006

City: Boliazuby village, Ternopil region

Diagnosis: cystic fibrosis with pancreatic insufficiency