Big man in little body

Nineteen-year-old Ania came to know that her baby was ill when he was four months. The news told by doctors was a shock: it was a rare disease suffered by as few as six children in Ukraine. More than that, only one of them has survived till the age of twelve. Dima’s father said he would leave to raise money for treatment of the boy … and has never come back. Now Dima is 10 and to live longer the boy needs an expensive medicine called ‘Genotropin’, which the mother is not able to buy because she has no money left.

It is now that Ania tells this story in a composed and expert way, using complex medical terms. But at that time, ten years ago, the young mother was nearly going mad: the baby gained one hundred grams of weight per month, had virtually no subcutaneous fat and seemed see-through. In addition, the son continuously suffered from awful pains. It was ascertained he needed injections of hormones as well as growth and appetite stimulants which are hardly unavailable in Ukraine. Domestic medicines which are allocated free of charge by the state have frightful side effects: they cause cretinism, brain and retina cancers, diabetes and even a coma. It is not by chance that residents of children's homes, who have the same diagnosis, don’t live long – this is the way such treatment affects them …

When Anna came to know that Germany produces a similar but higher quality and safe medicine, Genotropin, she started ordering it there. She located other medicines in Russia. Dime takes pills and drinks syrups every day, and his mother also gives him a hormone injection in a shoulder on a daily basis. With the time, the boy began to disrelish food because of taking the medicines. Each day he ate less and less, starvation or cardiac rupture seeming inevitable … But Ania decided to feed him by force: she swaddled him tightly and poured ground liquid food into his mouth. Fortunately, Dima started convalescing soon.
Dima’s organism is very fragile now, and it is extremely difficult for him to stand the simplest diseases or injuries.

“Each evening I realize that tomorrow my child may not awaken. That is why we don’t make long-term forecasts: we have seen a new day and it is good for now, - says Anna Andreiko, - And it is most frightful that Dima himself understands it: once, in despair, he told me: “Mum, will I not grow and will I die? Then I will be grow up right now!”

This large-eyed boy has much patience and self-control: having a regular attack of headache or weakness, he simple goes to his room, silently lies down on his bed and waits until he will be better.
Having exhausted her possibilities to pay for the treatment on her own, Ania started asking strangers for help. Soon Dima will need to go to a hospital again for examination and in summer they will need to buy Genotropin. Dima is sure he will make it and he will grow into manhood. He keeps saying: “Everything will be fine, I will be healthy and strong!”

Name: Dima Kubai, 10 years old

City: Donetsk region

Diagnosis: panhypopituitarism, secondary hypothyroid infantilism of a medicated compensation degree