Shunts, reservoirs and drainage systems for the urgent kids at the Ohmatdyt

13 OCT 2016

There are children we cannot talk about… But they do exist… And they do need our help. Here’s a specific story as an example. A little girl L. Born very prematurely. At the NICU. The parents barely ever visit and act very strange. Most likely they will abandon here.

Natalia tried talking to the mother a couple of times, telling her stories about kids with similar condition from our experience, promising that the Fund will help them, asking her not to abandon the baby… We still don’t know how what she will decide… But for right now, we do not have the parents’ permission to raise money for the child, and since they haven’t officially abandoned her the hospital cannot give us this permission either.
She does need our help anyway, though. If she didn’t get the surgery, she would have died…
We have already spent 17,000 UAH ($660). We took them from the Urgent Kids Fund. We don’t have much money there, though, and these kinds of situations, unfortunately, aren’t that rare.

What we want to do is to purchase 10 reservoirs (8,600 UAH — $340 each), 5 drainage systems (7,600 UAH — $290 each) and 5 shunting systems (33,000 UAH — $1,280 each). It is expensive, but we are talking about having an emergency kit to save 5 to 8 urgent babies at the Neonatal Center of the Ohmatdyt Hospital.

Being born prematurely is one of the main causes of hydrocephalus in babies. Small, underdeveloped infant brain is very sensitive to any sort of change: changes in pressure (during birth), oxygen deprivation, etc, which results in intraventricular hemorrhages, which can cause hydrocephalus. Reservoirs and drainage systems is the «first aid» in such cases. If they are applied in time (temporary placed for a couple of weeks) — many babies get to avoid the progression of the condition and pacing of the shunting system.

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UPD 21 DEC 2016

It works! We just recently told you a story about a child, whose parents decided to keep him after teh first successful story and long talks with the doctors and Natalia! The baby girl has already been discharged to go home!
We still need your help to purchase shunts and reservoirs for such cases, though…
With the help of the Norwegian diaspora we bought three reservoirs and 5 drainage systems, all that was present in Ukraine at the moment. And now we got a call from the supplier telling us that the rest of our order is already in Ukraine. Now we need to buy it as soon as possible, as the price will go up if the exchange rate changes.
Altogether we need 180,000 UAH more ($6,868) for seven reservoirs (8,600 UAH ($328) each) and 5 shunting systems (33,000 UAH ($1,260) each).

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UPD 23 NOV 2016
We are very grateful to the Ukrainan community of the Norgegian town of Stavanger!
Thanks to their help we were able to purchase 5 drainage systems and 3 reservoirs for the neurosurgeries for teh total amount of 62,990 UAH ($2,403).
Altogether we received $3,478.50 on November 15th (91,000 UAH), but it turned out that our supplier does not currently have very thing we need, so the remaining 29,000 UAH ($1,106) are waiting for the rest to be delivered to Ukraine.
These supplies (drainage and shunting systems, reservoirs) are used for the surgeries on premature babies that are being treated at the Neonatal Center of the Ohmatdyt Hospital and require surgical treatment.
We have not raised the required amount yet, however. We still need 7 more reservoirs and 5 more shunting systems.
Please consider making a donation!