Мedical examination for Zhenia. 2

Cancer affected Zhenia when he was only a year and six months. At this age, the boy would rather play in the sandbox and with toy cars but he had to be tied to the infusion pump and to receive chemotherapy. No wonder that he doesn’t smile a lot. It’s hard to smile when you always feel pain.

After treatment in Kyiv in summer little Zhenia underwent MIBG scanning in Italy thanks to the support of many people at the site of the Ukrainian Philanthropic Marketplace (view project here). However, that examination detected the remnants of the tumor in the kidney. After returning from Italy the boy continued treatment: he had another surgery to remove the tumor. Now he needs one more examination to make sure that this time everything is all right.

Unfortunately, there is one problem... The cost of this exam and hotel is more than 14 000 UAH. The family is very financially exhausted because of their children’s prolonged treatment. Zhenia’s elder brother has a hearing disability. Their parents have to face a lot of hardships as their both sons need special care and of course, it requires a lot of money.

Zhenia’s disease manifested itself suddenly. The boy lost appetite, had nausea and there was s swelling in the belly. The doctors in Odessa performed an open biopsy after which the child’s condition deteriorated and the tumor began to grow quickly. The parents brought their son to Kyiv to the Institute of Cancer. The exams resulted in a diagnosis of neuroblastoma. The treatment was performed according to the protocol. Zhenia underwent two bone marrow transplantations and now has to be sure that the treatment was successful.

Let’s help this little Odessite!

Name: Zhenia Zechu, 27.12.13

City: village Ozerne, Odessa region

Diagnosis: neuroblastoma of posterior mediastinum into the retroperitoneal space