Sasha: I'm not going to die! 2

UPD: an apparatus for Sasha has already been purchased, in early August a woman flew to India, now she is waiting for a lung transplant. Thanks to all the Donors who joined the project. Thanks to you, Sasha suffered a normal flight. "My son had to stay in the hospital by himself, after his surgery, my neighbor has to walk my daughter to school... that's terrible, but if I leave my room, I can't breathe," Olexandra says in her letter to us. What is it like, to be a single mother of two young children – a mother who, besides, is on the lung transplant list? "I'm pulled in all different directions – when I try to leave the house, my oxygen level drops to half its normal level and my heart rate spikes to 140 beats/minute. I've had a 2-D echo done, which shows irreversible changes, and says there's a high risk of an MI. I'm having to take IV medications at home...I hope to live long enough to get a lung transplant. I hope for your help." 

This young woman is waiting for her transplant surgery to be paid for with government funds, but that will take a while. "Besides waiting for my turn for the surgery itself, I also have to raise enough money for the trip and the living expenses during the post-op stay. However, the main thing is that right now I have to take care of my son. He had osteomyelitis, for which he had the surgery I mentioned. Now he has to stay on bedrest and then get physical therapy." It is difficult to even imagine what life must be like for this small family. For Olexandra to be able to get her new lungs and to be able to breathe normally again, many factors must come together, and some of them we have no influence over.

However, right now, we can make life easier for Olexandra and her children. Right now, while she still doesn't have healthy lungs, she would be able to breathe using artificial "lungs in a bag"--a portable oxygen concentrator, which only weighs 5 pounds, runs on a battery, and can easily be carried in an over-the-shoulder bag. With that, she could go anywhere – to visit her son in the hospital, to walk her daughter to school, to go to the grocery store, or even to simply take a walk outside... because for many months now, this young woman has been a prisoner of her room with an electric outlet, where her stationary oxygen concentrator is plugged in. The stationary concentrator was also purchased with the help of caring people and the UBB. Thanks to this concentrator, Olexandra has been able to survive and to be able to breathe while she's in her room. Now, let us all help her to be able to breathe and to spend time with her children outside the apartment, as well.

Earlier at UBB, we already collected funds for Olexandra. View the previous project you can by the link.

Name: Antonenko Olexandra, 31.01.1989

City: Kiev

Diagnosis: simple hypoplasia of the lungs, bronchiectasis of both lungs, violent emphysema of the lungs, condition after pneumomediastinum