The hottest and latest news come first.
 

The name of our organisation has been changed!

We underwent some structural changes in September 2002. This resulted in two organisations in place of one. The Simferopol Parent Organisation has kept the name ‘Parents Initiative’ and the relevant address and bank details. Our association is now called:

Mercy Mission ‘OVERCOMING’

We are going to hold onto the words ‘Parents Initiative’ as the term describing our operations, as is the custom of the international parent organisations.

Dear friends, please keep in touch! We are still the same, new name or no new name.

As before, we’re wrestling with the same problems, experiencing joys and facing challenges. Our children are still here with us.

Alexander Shtilik – bone marrow of the blood-related donor (his brother) was transplanted to him last April in Kiev!!!

When Alex came to Kiev at the height of the winter he was suffering badly from pneumonia. And yet he managed to pull through owing to the incredible efforts of Kiev hematologists and his own strong will. The operation was a success. Within a few days Alex is to be tested to verify the remission (it will have been 100 days since the transplantation date).

Alexander visited Crimea twice after the operation. He raced down the first time to visit Olga Bavarovskaya when he had learnt she had a relapse (more details below). Then he came here again for the ‘Day of the Recovered Child’.

...You should’ve seen them walking into the hallway: haggard Alex with his crew-cut of growing hair, and Olga a few minutes off her bed and free from the dropper wearing a snowy dress and wig…

New Pictures of Alex (commentary in Russian)

HELP WANTED NOW

Olga Bavarovskaya is having relapse!!!

On April 2, 2003 Olga relapsed. She’s to follow the steps of her Romeo, Alexander Shtilik, who’s been fresh out of the Op Room after the bone marrow transplantation up in Kiev. Now Olga will have to go under the knife for the same transplant, too.

Tragic as it is, we haven’t managed to raise enough funds for Olga’s operation. As of now we’ve only collected $1,000 out of 20k needed. And we’ve run out of time. 4 courses of the pre-op chemotherapy have been completed. Every day of delay may result in a new relapse.

Olga’s parents are negotiating the possibilty of operation in one of the Western countries to be paid for by some benevolent donors. But there’s no way to tell if it is going to work out.

Please help the girl! It is an awfully scary thought to think that the romantic story of Olga and Alexander will end in tragedy...

Pictures of Olga

HELP WANTED NOW

Yuri Usenko: relapse in the course of the treatment!!!

Yuri began with his treatment course in January. He has Non-Hodgkin B-cell Lymphoma.

Yuri’s mother says: ‘This June we were scheduled to start on the final sixth part of the course. And all of a sudden the disease symptoms resumed. The rash came out, the lymph nodes swelled ... Now the urgent transplantation of the bone marrow is imminent. Yuri became the third child in the ward who has nothing else but this operation to hope for. It takes a trip to Kiev and it’s very costly. There’s no way we could afford that. And the other thing is that it’s only me, his mother who can be used as the bone marrow donor in Yuri’s case. And to make things worse, it’s not been firmly decided yet if I am fit for that purpose. So quite probably, a BM donor will have to be found, too.

We want our boy to stay alive. Please, help us if you can.’ [More...]

HELP WANTED NOW

Sergey Klimyuk has had another relapse!

...One more problem cut the boy down: fungal contamination. The doctors are trying to do their best to make Sergey recover the condition when the bone marrow can be transplanted. A fully compatible donor is available. It’s Sergey’s sister Anna. And all the funds to purchase the medicines needed for the operation have been raised! By virtue of joint contributions, $12,000 has been collected. If it had been there a bit earlier... Currently the boy’s condition has been poor.

Please, pray for Sergey.

HELP WANTED

*Angeline Lazarenko is 4 months old only. She was diagnosed with retroperitoneal space neuroblastoma almost the moment she was born. The girl has proved responsive to the treatment.
Natalya Lazarenko, Angie’s mother, ‘My daughter continues to receive chemotherapy. She grew up some, learnt how to smile and coo. The doctors were successful in finding the money, but their sources are just about to dry up. My heart jumps every time I look at Angie and think this could be her last ‘chemo’...

* The tests confirmed that Mikhail Norenko still has the TB infection. So he continues to receive proper treatment.
Now Mikhail needs ‘MYCOBUTIN’(a medicine that has the least side effects); 0.15 mgs capsules, 3 times a day for 3 months, i.e. 270 capsules. One pack (30 capsules) costs RUR 3,700 [Roubles], or US $125.00.

* 6-year-old Alexander Sviridenko has Wilms' tumor of the right kidney. He was operated on in Simferopol after a chemotherapy course and is taking a lengthy combined chemotherapy.
Alexander needs ‘COSMEGEN’ for the treatment to be carried on.

These children need your help.
Please take a moment to see what you can do!
Thank you!

Now to the rest of the key events.
 

The regular General Assembly of ICCCPO (International Confederation of Childhood Cancer Parent Organisations) was held on 17-19th September, 2002 in Porto, Portugal. Due to the support of the Confederation Executive Committee and its Chairwoman Marianne Naafs-Wilstra, our Mission received a grant which gave the opportunity for our Organisation Coordinator Marina Novitskaya to visit Porto.

One of the major highlights of our participation in the meeting was the approval by General Assembly of the Executive Committee’s proposal to grant our organisation the membership of Confederation. From that time on, our official name has been changed to ‘Mercy Mission “Overcoming”’(read more about the name change below). Now we are the full ICCCPO members and the fully authorised and the sole (we regret to add) representatives of Ukraine, members of the Confederation. To be a member is not just a great honour for us. It also means bringing our operations in line with international requirements. Some more work to do, for sure.

As a result of the ICCCPO event:
– we gained some invaluable experience and were happy to realise that we, too, has something;
– useful to share with our colleagues and friends. We still can’t help remembering the warmth and understanding that we experienced in the course of the meetings.

It will take us some more time to fully apprehend and appreciate the effects of the ICCCPO event. But even now we have the new lines of work and operating procedures to develop. The long-term perspective seems exciting, as long as the doers rally and the bureaucrats stay out.

On February 15-20, 2003 we celebrated the International Childhood Cancer Day (held in Crimea for the first time). So, we are going to post the summary (in Russian) of the events we ran to commemorate this day, as well as some pictures (commentary - in Russian).

This 10-12 April Olga Styopkina, the doctor of the Hematology Department of the Children’s Hospital of Crimea was invloved in the work of the First International Symposium of Childhood and Adolescent Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma which was organised by the US Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation and held in New York, N.Y. Our Mission was honoured to be the driving force behind the trip and participation of the Crimean medical doctor.

The main outcome of the trip proved to be the introduction to ‘MABTERA’ medication used for the treatment of Lymphomas.

This April in Moscow bulletin called ‘The Chronicles of the Ministry to Children’ (Issue #3) an article titled ‘Christ in a Hospital Ward’ by Eugene Novitsky was published by ‘Narnia’ Centre.

‘Is there anything we can give these children that they haven’t got already? God help us to be wise enough to learn from them! And they… they just keep waiting until we’re there, next to their side again to hand over the bedpan or read a story for them; to answer their questions or encourage them by the living faith of genuine and unselfish love – not by the canned words about faith. And then leave the rest to the One Who opened the way to eternity by suffering for us… The One Who Himself is the DOOR to eternal life…’

On the 25th of May the first ‘outdoor’ event called ‘HELP FROM THE BOTTOM OF YOUR HEART’ was held. Well, to be precise it was a ‘market place’ event because it was staged on the premises of the Simferopol shopping market. The event became possible due to the help of many volunteers.

A brass band played for an hour at the entrance to the market. One of the town’s best children dancing teams called ‘Zadorinka’ (Ginger) gave their performance in the space between the salesmen stands. Young Christians of two Protestant Churches ensured the event had the sound equipment and also were very helpful otherwise. During the breaks between performance items, the parents of the little patients that are in the clinic now talked to the market shoppers and asked them to donate for children’s treatment.

The event was organised to raise funds for the two teenagers who need the urgent transplantation of the bone marrow – Sergei Klimyuk and Olga Bavarovskaya. All visitors were handed the leaflets with the story of Sergei and Olga and complimentary small calendars with the ‘Overcoming’ logo. The self-made oversized cups that the X-ray film bags were fashioned into at the clinic were passed about to collect the offerings.

Everything went well, with a few negligible hitches: the short-lived misunderstanding on the part of some tradesfolk and the weather pelting down twice. A total of 652 grivna was raised (a bit less than US $150).

We celebrated the ‘Day of the Recovered Child’ on the 1st of June, just as we do every year.

Unfortumately, the all-time favourite clown – old mate Tolik couldn’t be therå to join the celebration. However, the day turned out really merry and joyful. Two hours dashed by like two minutes because of the beautiful dancing of the kids from the ‘Fireworks’ group, awards presentation to the department ‘seniors’ (those who have celebrated 5 years since the date of remission this year), and gifts to all the ex-patients. The staff lounge was crammed with flowers.

Sadly, the Recovered Child Day had to be run in Olga Ivanova’s absence for the first time. Her magnified picture was hanging on the Assembly Hall wall throughout the celebration ceremony.

A few minutes before the beginning, a couple walked into the Hall: Alexander Shtilik and Olga Bavarovskaya. He had been fresh from the op-room after the BM transplantation; she had been recently off the dropper wearing a white dress and wig. Both were weak on their feet, but resolute to resist the desease and feebleness.

More and more ‘seniors’ bring their children with them to the celebration every year. Anna Vishnevskaya (6 years since remission) is proud to be in the family way which has been quite evident by now. She will be a mum shortly.

15 people got the ‘seniors’ certificates this year. These are the ones who marked their 5 year anniversary since the remission: Daniel Novitsky, Alina Permyakova, Platon Shishkkov, Lenura Azizova, Dmitry Balatchuk, Sergei Yerokhin, Ekaterina Zhukova, Anatoly Kasner, Vladimir Kurganov, Alexei Kushnarev, Yusuf Midatov, Fikret Nagaev...

The regular meeting of the Leucaemia Group of Ukraine has been held in Kiev on the 5-7 of July. We intend to post Valentin Usachenko’s report on this event on our site in the nearest future.

The ‘OVERCOMING’ Mission attended the Grand Meeting and Concert organised on the Physician’s Day on the 13th of July. 8-year old girl Ekaterina Zhukova and Mission Coordinator Eugene Novitsky addressed with a message the Crimean Healthcare Minister, top medical officials and the city doctors. The crafts and artwork by the patients of our clinic were on display in the theatre’s lobby.

Since this February, the Department was in crisis caused by the shortage of Amphotericin B, also known under the brand name of ‘Fungison’. It is used for fungus infection treatment of our children (fungus is a frequent satellite infection that occurs at the time of the chemotherapy). Fungison was gone from the shop shelves. The medicine vanished from the shops because the manufacturer (Bristol Myers Squibb Co.) had had some breakdown at the factory. And it wasn’t just Ukraine or Russia that ended up short. People in Western Europe were suffering from the lack of that drug, too.

In the search of the medication, we started a thread on Andrei Kudaev’s Forum saying ‘Where can one buy Amphotericin?’ and requested to provide any info available. The forum community proved more than helpful by not only finding the spots where the drug was available, but also by raising $1,100 for the purchase! Upon further discussion, the decision was made to transfer these funds to Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. The forum member who comes from there has a wide network of connections with the pharmaceutical companies both in Ukraine and overseas.

However, things got stuck – Fungison was nowhere to be found. Throughout this crisis the clinic had to put up with the rations of Amphotericin doled out by 2-3 vials a day to the worst case patients.

And finally – the new batch of the medicine numbering 25 vials was received by the clinic on June 29th. It came from Israel.

Many thanks to all of you who helped our kids!
 

WHAT ELSE IS NEW ABOUT CHILDREN

* Mikhail Evelev (Diagnosis – neuroblastoma) is 9 months old now. He took 6 chemo block courses. There are some residual tumour focuses in the bowels and liver. So the continuing therapy will have to be intensive.

* After the regular semi-annual treatment in Kiev taken every 6 months, Vera Gelyuk’s condition (11 years old) has not improved. She returned to Simferopol in a very poor condition. Back here, the doctors and the girl herself keep strauggling for the girl’s life. Vera recovered her speech and can raise from her wheelchair. Yet, the final diagnosis hasn’t been defined… The statement: ‘the daughter of the Chernobyl Disaster salvage team member who died a few years after the calamity’ is not exactly a diagnosis, is it?..
Maybe, the girl will need an operation to remover her spleen.

* 13-year-old Oleg Vanashov (Diagnosis: recurrent embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma of the left eye) was taken to the clinic in poor condition again in May 2003. After taking a treatment course and consequent condition improvement, he was released for the therapy break… and has never turned up at the Department again afterwards. The Vanashevs family has never been seen in Kiev where the boy had been assigned for the doctors to decide on the eye removal.

* Emir Shevkiev turned 15 on the 28th of June. Though a student of the school (Lyceum) for the gifted children, he never looks down his nose at the other kids.
Emir is having remission right now. Going through Ì-Protocol.

NEW PATIENTS

* Anna Zakirova, 14 years old. Diagnosis: acute lymphoblastic leucaemia, L1-L2, pre-B cell.Anna was signed in March 2003.
Anna tends to suffer from treatment; bad aftereffects. But once she’s barely able to get off her cot, she dresses up and walks out in the hall leaning with her one hand on the wall, and the other one – on her mom and a nurse: ‘I looked ugly yesterday, so I want people to see what I am like today’. That shows Anna’s grit and her determination to shake the disease, come rain or shine.

* Sergei Karashchuk. Diagnosis: acute lymphoblastic leucaemia, non-T cell. Signed in to the clinic on the 22nd of May 2003.

* Bogdan Kulyankov, 3 years old. Diagnosis: acute lymphoblastic leucaemia, L1-L2. The boy was taken to the hospital on the 3rd of June 2003 from the Simferopol oprhanage ‘Yolochka’ (Christmas Tree), he’s an orphan.

SORROWFUL NEWS

Our female doctor Olga Ivanova who saved lifes of dozens of children with blood cancers (including our son – OVERCOMING Coordinators) ended up in most grave condition in the hospital – quite unexpectedly for anyone including herself. 4th Degree bowels cancer and liver metastases. And this was made worse by the two previous strokes and diabetes. The doctors had to admit they were helpless.

On February 5th at 03.30 hours (Kiev time) Olga died in the Reanimation Department. She had been cut down by the malady that she was waging war against to save the lives of the kids. Now the living reminders of Dr. Ivanova’s rescue work are walking the land of Ukraine…

MEMORIAL HALL

Vladimir KHACHATURYAN, 14 years old

Oleg KOBETS, 4 years old

No words are offered here, anything you say would sound artificial… Because it probably takes someone who lost a child, or almost did, to really understand and feel what it’s like. And yet, our department is all about JOY! It is true that we can’t save everyone. But most of the children are snatched away from the grip of death. And be that as it may, neither mothers nor their children think of the ward environment as something intolerable. On the contrary – the department is viewed as a bay of battle for life and a place to go for help! Actually at some point along the way (after a regular therapy break) both mum and kid reach the point when they just say: ‘well, let’s go back HOME’ to mean ‘BACK to the clinic’…

So, life goes on. And that goes for our children’s hematology clinic, too.

Please be sure to notice the changes made to OUR ADDRESS AND BANK ACCOUNT.
 

We are pleased to say that the ‘parent part’ of our Mission team seems firmed up now. The ‘backbone’ of the organisation has been set in place again after a lengthy displacement. This includes Svetlana (Valentina Polishchuk’s mother) who took on the responsibility for events and exhibitions; Alexander and Victoria (Rostislav Gulyaev’s parents) who provide for the publishing needs of the Mission; Eugene and Marina (Daniel Novitsky’s (this year’s ‘senior’) who handle the international contacts and Internet support for the Mission; and other Svetlana (Mikhail Evelev’s grandma) who’s been working to involve sponsors and philanthropists who could help with both finances and medicines.

The volunteers work is currently headed by Yulia Ovsyannikova of the Christian Church ‘New City’. The translation support is now offered to the Mission by Yulia Vyaltseva, the student of Crimean Medical University and Sergei Korniyenko, Crimean-American College employee.
 

March 10, 2002

Our department has been equipped with computers. The equipment was acquired with a help of CMS mission, the installation and connection was carried out by representatives of internet-cafe "Ursa Major".

Electron addresses are the following:
- the department - hospital@simfi.net
- "Parents Initiative" - hemato@simfi.net

Zhenya Mitrofanov and Galya Scherbina died.

Finally the condition of Alesha Gustenko allowed to pick up a blood sample for type clarification in order to determine the potential donor of bone marrow. The analysis was sent to Saint-Petersburg. Now we are waiting for the result.

MONEY NEEDED FOR OPERATION HAS NOT BEEN GATHERED YET !!!

Help was received from people who usually helps us:

- from D. - 200 USD for Vitaly Anisimov

- from Pavlovs family - 200 grivens for Lesha Gustenko and 100 grivens for Vitya Leleko

Voluntary work in the department is started. The voluntary help is proposed by students of the Crimea-American college. Now their help is connected with two directions: translation of messages and documentation from Russian into English and vice versa, and handmade craft studies with children in evenings and in days-off.

New at the site:
photos of Vanya Kvashnitsky and Misha Norenko

February 21, 2002

On January 24th the repeated relapse is diagnosed for Zhenya Mitrofanov.

Now - about holidays.

The story about the New Year celebration in our department has been already contained in the news. Now it is carried at separate division and is accompanied with photoes.

Also celebration of the Orthodox Christmas was fine. We congratulated children and their parents on the second day of holiday - 8th of January. There was not held a concert or celebratory perfomance this year. There was quiet conversation of all together - children and grown-ups - about our Saviour and our life in clinic. There was presented a huge Christmas pie with apple jam - traditional in our department.

The remarkable gifts were made. The Mission of David Hellowell and Simferopol charitable Fund of humanitarian initiatives gave to our children 50 boxes from international organisation “Kind Samarianin” (project “Christmas Child”). Large boxes filled with toys, souvenirs, useful and interesting things - each of them was gathered by one family, intending it for a child of definite age. Almost in every box children found photoes of those who prepared the presents for them. There was great joy for everybody.

In the morning 3th of January Vanya Kvashnitsky with his mother and grand-mother came to the department for usual “chemistry”. Large amount of people: doctors, mothers of other children of the department and the author of these lines (as the Father Frost) went to congratulate them. Vanya was handed a basket with gifts from Kiev (from Olga Nikolaevna Vershinina), and one more basket with sweets (which was received by every other child for the New Year) and record-player with laser records - from Anna P. Vanya was at first suppressed, but than a bit relaxed. He touched my face, twiddled my beard (real) a bit. And also on parting we rubbed our foreheads and noses.

We have got an idea: every time when Vanya arrive in clinic (aproximately once in three weeks - he has such treatment program) we can give him a present. In the last days of January we managed to do it: the boy got a Christmas box from “Kind Samarianin” and a soft toy-dog which was sent by Natasha from Kiev.

Probably one manage to acquire and send a construction set with large plastic (bending) articles for Vanya? And also - if it really exists! - something like alphabet but written in Brail type? And children’s books - also with this text.

Then the Old New Year (Russian national holiday) approached… By this day the presents have come from New York from Andrew for two boys: Danya Poddubny and Misha Norenko.

Andrew sent money and asked us to choose on the spot what is needed. Daniil got as a present a player with headphones, two cassettes for it, a book and chocolate. For Michael we decided to buy books taking into consideration his interests. On 30 USD which were sent, we managed to buy many wonderful editions, magnificently published, with colourful pictures.

We all together, including all doctors and half of nurses, handed the present to Misha. Misha looked stunned. Doctors - also, and began to enrol to an order to take for reading.

Charity exhibitions of our children’s works took place in Amsterdam and Kiev!

Amsterdam exhibition organized by Sergei and Karina from Fund “Save Russian child!” took place in orthodox temple of Amsterdam on 6, 7 and 13 of January. Story and photoes from exhibition are here.

Kiev exhibition was organized by a group of students from the Union of students-Christians under leadership of Elena Kameneva and held in Kievo-Mogilyanskaya Academy. Period of the exhibition is the following: January 21 - 26, every day from 10:00 till 18:00, presentation on 21.01 from 16:00 till 20:00. Valentina, mother of Nikita Komashko visited opening and presentation in Kiev.

Here is the letter of Elena, organizer of the exhibition, with the story how it was held.

Students-organizers of the exhibition gathered for our children two large boxes of presents!

The inspired patients of children’s hematology under leadership of the teacher took up needlework with zest.

On two exhibitions there was gathered and earned totally 660 USD. 70 USD were spent for presents for children, who took active part in needlework, for acquiring materials for work, for purchasing an iron instead of broken one for department. All rest sum will be spent for medicines for general usage.

In future we decided to hold every exhibition as a purpose action, agreeing beforehand how to spend funds received during exhibition.

Now one can transmit money for our children in US dollars through credit card “VISA ELECTRON”.

DEAR FRIENDS, THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!

* E.Oleinik transmitted to our account 80 Ukranian grivnes. This sum is intended for purchasing physical solutions for Vitya Lleko.

* Besides 100 grivnes for Vitya came from Pavlovs family from Brovaryi. This money was received in time.

* 400 USD for treatment of Alesha Gustenko and 300 USD for operation of Vitaly Anisimov were sent by Anna P. from Moscow.

* On January 17th mother of Dima Drobitko received two botles of Meronem, which Natalia Slichuk from Kiev got for her son. Natalia also sent a big soft toy for Vanya Kvashnitsky.

* On January 29th George Kerilett, the vice-principal of the Crimea-American college, handed 500 USD for Lesha Gustenko.

* First 600 USD, than 1500 EURO came from Holland - from Karina and Sergei (Mission “Save Russian child!”). This money gathered in America came to be spent for treatment of Alexei Gustenko.

* Besides 100 Ukranian grivens on 1st of February was sent by Pavlovs family, Brovaryi - for Lesha Gustenko.

* 1000 USD for Gustenko was transmitted by Oliver Radke.

* 1000 USD was sent by our constant philantropist D. From Moscow: 200 USD - for Michael Medvedev, 700 USD - for Alesha Gustenko, 100 USD - for needs of department.

Our Holland friends do their best (and it seems, sometimes even more) to help our children. They together with commercial companies organize charitable lotteries, conduct action “CHANGE FOR GOOD”.

Some time ago we asked them to find discharged infusomates as far as possible. These are apparatus, without which up-to-date treatment of oncological diseases is impossible. Infusomates provide the absolutely exact dosage of chemical therapy, protecting mucous membranes of a child against burns. When there is lack of such devices, parents have to seat at child’s bed round-the-clock and count every drop of medicine.

Infusomates in our department have been working for 10 years and totally exhausted their resource.

From beginning of December of last year till middle of January Sergei and Karina actively sought for discharged infusomates rounf clinics and dealers. Unfortunately the only one infusomates which they managed to find in clinic “Boven IJ” were in such worn-out stage that usage of such equipment is dangerous for patients; its selling and dissemination in Europe are banned. The cost of one new infusion system starts from 1400 EURO.

Nevertheless Karina and Sergei now negotiate to company “B.Braun” about possibility to gift several infusion pumps to Simferopol children’s hematology! Time will show the results of these negotiations.

It is difficult to choose words for expression of our gratitude to these people for such great and unselfish help!

Some news in our department. It is more likely good than bad :)

One of our doctors - Ekaterina Ivleva - in the end of December got married! To American citizen Robert Ortman whome she knew for a long time. Doctor Kate departed with her husband. We all congratulate her and are very glad for her! But - also it’s a pity that our department was left by the doctor who had saved not only one not ten children’s lives…

Now - news about children.

Katya Khodova and Vanya Bobersky have finished treatment. Exactly - treatment in clinic. But the most important, that they are already discharged from clinic to home!

Misha Norenko feels not badly. Liver came to normal state, but hepatitis’ treatment is being continued. Money collected for him in last year has not run out. But probably soon he will need again financial help.

Another orphan boy entered our department from children ophan’s house: Volodya Stogny. He is 6 years old and has got acute leukemia. Vladimir is very suppressed, he communicates to doctors mainly with help of gestures. But with toys he organize real performances! Certainly he was immediately taken into Misha Norenko’s personal care and custody.

Beginning of this year was very merry for Artem Grischenko. As he got possibility to receive the eighth factor once-twice in a month, he began to forget about his haemophilia. First time in his life Artem attended to several New Year parties! But in the second half of January he was taken to clinic: too much danced at his birthday party. So he had to inject urgently the factor.

Xenia Gudymenko is not for the first time in the department. She is 14 years old and has relapsing thrombocytopenia. Now she was taken to clinic with its acute aggravation. In the end of January she was carried out planned operation: removal of spleen. Now her blood analysis grow better, level of thrombocytos comes to normal. There is hope for full recovery.

Helen Busova (13 years old, lymphogranulematos) now faces very complicated situation: preparation procarbazin (natulan) which is to be used in her treatment program, is not produced at present time. There is alternative protocol with vepezid; other children with such disease usually get it. But Helen has strong allergical reaction to vepezid! What shall be done? It is situation when one can’t even ask for help - nothing helps. Doctors try to ask through their colleagues in Ukraine, Russia and abroad to get at least several bottles of procarbazin - “from old stores”.

Galya Scherbina is 10 years old. In October 2001 she was diagnosed relapse of acute myeloblast leukemia. An attempt to attain remission by “soft” way appeared to be not successful. Galya was prescribed palliative treatment. Now her condition is satisfactory.

Daniil Poddubny now is at home, in Sevastopol. Nevertheless we often get the latest news about his condition - owing to Andrew Vustyanuk, who undertook personal care of Danya. Every Saturday Andrew phones to Poddubnys, talk to Daniil and his parents - and then sends us a letter with news. Therefore, taking into consideration Andrew’s work location, we dare say: “Information about Danya Poddubny’s health was kindly given by the Centre of space investigations of New-York, USA” :)

News for 12.01.2001: Danya is lively, cheerful, runs round the house and somersaults in snow in the street, that’s why he is constantly in a half-catching cold condition. Blood analysis on 8-9 January: haemoglobin 128, thrombocytes 126. It is not bad, but if we take dynamics of the last two months, indicators rise and fall, they would better be more stable. As before the boy gets sandimmun. He has grew a little, by last check is 147 sm. On Tuesday he will go to teacher - winter-spring term starts.

23.01.2002: Danya has an excellent mood: as a New Year present he received from his grand-father and god-father components of models (a sailing vessel and two aeroplanes) and went into this occupation with great enthusiasm. Several days in a row for hours he didn’t leave his table - carved, gathered, glued. Mother Tanya complained: the son forgot about food and even he didn’t go out. But with such delight he spoke about models which he finally finished! And as it can be noticed (as mother Tanya said) his condition is rather better, he turned pink and shows appetite. We wish that in future also it would not turn worse.

30.01.2002: At school Danya now is good in the Ukranian language (this wasn’t noticed earlier). From remnants of LEGO, having taken apart any of his former creations (and later regretting about this!) he erected mobile laboratory for catching ghosts (!!!). Bad news: Danilka caught cold (now there is a flu epidemics in Sevastopol) and feels twice badly - due to high temperature and due to necessity of staying at home while real spring came, +12°C, first grass is turning green. And it is so boring ton stay at home at such weather. On Monday (today) usual “big” blood analysis (from vein) is ahead.

08.02.2002: Danya pulled through the flu, now, it seems, everything is OK. But blood analysis is bad: haemoglobin is normal (124), but thrombocytes fell down twice (from 126 to 65). Appetite also fell down a bit. 11.02.2002 blood sample will be picked again - maybe it will clarify… Danya saw a photo of sailing vessel in magazine, it produced impression on him, and he created it donating for this purpose his laboratory for ghosts’ catching, which he recently made.

Yesterday he wrote dictation in Russian language. He wrote it not bad but blundered two mistakes and got only “8” mark (in Ukranian system maximum is “12”). On Tuesday there will be class test in Russian again. He very much worries and prepares for it. (He dreams of “12”!)

Today (on Saturday) all family went to the country to forest, river. Danya was delighted. As mother Tanya said, he “frolicked and ran like a happy puppet”. He very much missed sun, but now it is good: it is warm in Sevastopol, there is no snow, slippery warm boots are changed for trainers and one can rush about as more as one want. On his birthday (January 22) he wants to go to school, to his friends, but it is unpredictable because due to flu epidemic the quarantine can be announced.

The help is also needed: Anya Yablokova

Now - bad news.

In December 4 year-old Elmir Abzhemilov (B-cell lymphoma) was diagnosed progression of disease. The boy started to get the so called “therapy of anticipation” - as beginning to prepare to bone-marrow transplantation. But in the first days of January Elmir’s parents came to a decision to interrupt treatment and took their son to home.

The worst. There was gotten information about death of Emil Asanov and Robert Oganezov. First boy was 9, the other was 11 years old. Both boys overcame relapse and needed bone-marrow transplantation and started to prepare for it. Both children were taken home by their parents, therapy was interrupted. Both were going to be treated by recently appeared medicine “Glivex”, but as we knew, there was not time to start treatment…

What will be further? Further - there will be new patients coming to our department: Alie Bakieva with myelodisplastic syndrome, Tanya Orlova with nefroblastoma, Tim Soltanov with Lymphoma, Vova Stognij… And for each of them doctors will struggle - again, like in the first time. In order to snatch children’s lives from death.

OLD NEWS