Oksana from Mariupol is losing her sight

Twice displaced, Oksana Korostelova faced a full-scale invasion in Mariupol. 2 weeks in a cold basement under shelling led to her rapidly losing her sight. Now every 3 months Oksana needs expensive injections of the drug “Ailia” into her eyes. We open a collection for 4 bottles, which will be enough for 4 months.

In Donetsk, Oksana worked as an engineer at a local factory. She devoted her free time to family and hobbies. Everything changed overnight when, because of their pro-Ukrainian position, the family began to be persecuted: searches, arrests, threats. In 2015, the family moved to Volnovakha, where the husband remained, and Oksana and her 7-year-old granddaughter left for Mariupol two years later to live in a rented apartment.

After February 24, 2022, Oksana and her granddaughter sat in the basement for 2 weeks until a volunteer took them in his car to Manhush. Only after recovering a little from the horror she had experienced, the woman went to the hospital with pain in her right arm. It turned out that while cooking over an open fire, Oksana received not only a concussion from a shell that exploded nearby, but also her hand was broken.

A little later, the grandmother and granddaughter moved to Poland to live with Oksana’s daughter. In the very first month, Oksana began to catastrophically lose her vision. The doctor explained that due to diabetes mellitus, the blood vessels in the eyes were already fragile, and prolonged intense stress aggravated the situation.

To save her eyesight, the woman returned to Ukraine (to Pavlohrad) and went to the Dnepropetrovsk Regional Clinical Ophthalmological Hospital. The head of the department explained that there was swelling of the retina and numerous hemorrhages. The left eye practically does not see, and the right – 20%. The doctor suggested the only treatment option that would stop the loss of vision – intraocular injections of Ailia (Aflibersept) every 3 months.

In 2022, Oksana underwent 10 such injections in the operating room under a microscope under local anesthesia. It improved vision by 17%. Then the family ran out of money. Without injections, vision has decreased again: the woman sees only the outlines of objects. There are countless wounds that she accidentally has got while cooking. She recently burned her leg with boiling water.

Friends, let's raise the necessary amount so that Oksana can continue receiving Ailia injections and stop her vision loss! She really hopes for help from people with kind hearts.