Around April 20th, the shelling of the small, beautiful town of Liman in the Donetsk region intensified. There were disruptions in cell phone service. At the same time Andrii had a fever. The antipyretic medications could not cope with the high fever and each day my son got worse and worse, his condition worsened with bouts of dystonia. Due to the bombing of the city, electricity and gas were cut off. There was practically no communication. My son’s condition was critical. On May 3rd, we barely got through to the mayor, Alexander Zhuravlev, and he arranged the evacuation of Andrii to the district center of Kramatorsk city.
My husband and I went with Andrii, and my eldest son and youngest daughter, 9 months old only, stayed at home with their grandparents. I couldn’t find my place in the hospital, praying to God that my family was alive. The overall situation worsened every day. In the middle of the night I woke up and it seemed to me that the room was full of smoke. I turned off the heater and the lights. I don’t know how much time passed when the phone rang: “Lera, Grandma and Grandpa are alive. The house burned down,” my husband’s friend said. Barely waiting until morning, with no contact with my family, I cut off the phones of everyone: the mayor and the local government. Near the afternoon of that day, the children and grandmother were brought to the hospital. Grandpa stayed behind to watch what was still left of the burned house. Despite the misfortune that befell us, we were lucky, because the most important thing is life and we were all alive!
At the children’s regional hospital our entire family of six people was admitted. We were well fed, helped with our belongings, since all of our own belongings were burned – we were left with only what we were wearing. My grandmother forgot to take the documents because of the stress and shock, and again the mayor came to our aid, delivering the documents to us in person at the clinic. We stayed in Kramatorsk from May 3rd to 17th. Using Telegram we were able to find volunteers who helped us evacuate further to the city of Dnipro. It had to be done urgently, because in Kramatorsk Andrii could not get proper care due to the lack of examination equipment and medications necessary for his treatment. Despite my son’s grave condition and the loss of our home, we were on our way to Dnipro cheerfully, lying together on a big mattress as a family. After all, the most important thing – we were alive and the most important – all together!
In Dnipro city from May 17th till June 6th, Andrii was examined, but doctors could not determine the cause of his serious condition and make a diagnosis. The overall situation in the country was getting worse all the time. There was shelling and bombing everywhere. My son was getting worse every day. We were told: “You have to go to Germany. They could help Andrii there.” The volunteers who helped us leave Kramatorsk found us volunteer help in Germany – the “Be an Angel” organization. These guys organized an ambulance which took me and Andrii to Chisinau and the rest of the family, except Dad, by bus to Kishinev city, Moldova. Airplanes no longer flew from Ukraine, and my son’s condition worsened every day. Our case is one of many unbelievable during the war – the way from Ukraine through Moldova to Germany.
In Kishinev, we had to stay in the intensive care unit from 6th to 14th of June, while Andrii was being prepared for the flight. Volunteers from the “Be an Angel” organized a private mini plane which took Andrii to the city of Leipzig, where an ambulance was waiting for us at the airport and quickly transported my son to the university clinic. My other two children and their grandmother (my mom) followed us by bus and arrived in Leipzig on June 15th. The family was put up in a hotel, where little Lera was loved by everyone at once. Everybody in Germany treated our family with love and special attention – this helps and supports us a lot when we are away from home. I was with Andrii in the clinic 24/7, and grandmother had a hard time coping with the baby, who is growing by leaps and bounds and requires constant attention. Again, we were lucky – a month and a half after our evacuation to Germany, the doctors helped our daddy to be reunited with his family.
During the four months in the intensive care unit of Leipzig University Hospital, Andrii underwent a complete examination, but the cause of his dystonia could not be found. The son was treated based on the experience of world medicine. Andrii has been through a lot during this period: about a week was in a coma on artificial ventilation, underwent two surgeries: 02.09.22 in the side stitched Baclofen pump with a cable, through which the drug Baclofen comes directly to the brain through the spine; 16.09.22 setting gastrostoma – probe in the stomach for food and additional medications, as otherwise the food is not digested and already there was a critical weight loss.
After a certain cocktail of medications was agreed, we were discharged to the hotel. Even after discharge the nurses from ICU often came to our hotel to check on Andrii. At the clinic my son was surrounded with love and care, everyone felt sorry for me and supported me in every way.
I wish I could say that now Andrii is doing well, but children with cerebral palsy and a bouquet of associated diagnoses often have “glitches” in the program. After staying at the hotel for 11 days, Andrei got sick again, and we had to go back to the clinic, where they changed his cocktail of medications again and took him under observation.
Now our family was placed in a six-room apartment in Eilenburg. Once again, we are surrounded by wonderful people at every turn! They helped us with the paperwork and with visiting the clinic in Leipzig. While we were opening an account at the bank, we met one of the employees – he gave us as a present all the furniture from his mom’s apartment, who died recently, visited our appointment to greet us and wish our family a happy New Year. Since December 19th, Andrii has been feeling badly every other day: nausea, vomiting. His condition is monitored by nurses who come to our house.
Despite all the trials that my son and our family have gone through, I’m a happy person, because I’m surrounded by good people everywhere.
Since 2018 Andriusha and I became a part of a big friendly family of CF “Kids to Kids”, who support us every month by sending medicines and diapers, paying for rehabilitation courses. Since 2019 we have our own home, thanks to the kind people we met through the “Kids to Kids” Foundation. From the first days of the full-scale war, during the evacuation and throughout, the director of the foundation, Natalia Kiseleva, has been in touch with me. Even while in evacuation in Germany, Natalya found a way to meet us to hug us and give us gifts from the “Kids to Kids” Foundation.
I would also like to express my gratitude to:
❤️ Alexander Zhuravlev, the mayor of Liman city;
❤️ All the doctors and medical personnel of the intensive care department of Children’s Regional Hospital of Kramatorsk, Donetsk region;
❤️ Doctors and medical staff of the Dnipro Hospital, 13 Kosmicheskaya St., Dnipro city;
❤️ The volunteers (https://my.ua/persons/svitlana-fomina) who brought us to Dnipro;
❤️ The management of the boarding house “Solnechny” in the Novomoskovsk district of Dnipro;
❤️ The volunteers of the “Be an Angel” organization who did an incredible thing – in extreme conditions they organized the evacuation of Andrii from Dnipro to Kishinev city, Moldova and then – by a private plane from Kishinev to Leipzig;
❤️ Doctors and staff of the University Hospital of Leipzig;
❤️ The management and staff of the H+Hotel in Leipzig
hplus.leipzig@h-hotels.com
www.h-hotels.com
❤️ The team of the CO “Kids to Kids” Foundation
I cannot believe that the family from the small town of Liman travelled thousands of miles to Germany to save their son’s life, and met all kinds of incredible people along the way! And despite the fact that today we are far from home, our hearts are with Ukraine!
We believe in victory and we are waiting for our return home, where everything is native, dear and loved!
