Lina and her mother are at risk

Lina is 8.5 years old and for the last year she's been breathing at nights with the help of an oxygen unit. The congenital disease of cystic fibrosis literally doesn't let you breathe as it gradually damages your lungs. Hence, it makes a person highly susceptible to any respiratory infection and prevents him from gaining weight, because the person sheds the kilograms quickly in acute phases of the disease, which leaves him with less resources to fight. Being 1.3 m tall, Lina hardly weighs 23 kg. Due to damaged lungs, she is at high risk at the time of current pandemic.

Lina's mother is at risk for another reason – she works as a ward nurse at the hospital. The hospital staff is not provided with adequate protection supplies and every morning, when she goes on duty, Angela faces the risk of getting infected. But she has to work.

We pursue two equally important goals under this project:
- Acquire protection items for Lina's mother
- Purchase the supply of special high-calorie nutrition for Lina, which is also about protection, since more weight means more strength for the patients to fight for their lives.

Lina's primary diagnosis – cystic fibrosis – affects not only the respiratory function, but the digestive function as well. The girl has to take enzymes with every meal to help digest her food, and these medicines are vitally important. But even with enzymes, her body doesn't receive enough nutrients, so it is crucial to regularly add special high-calory food products to the diet of patients like Lina, to maintain their weight at least at the lower limit of normal and to ensure they have strength to fight.

Name: Mischenko Lina, 03.08.2011

City: Smila, Cherkasy region

Diagnosis: cystic fibrosis with pancreatic insufficiency