Other Carolina's photos

Dear friends,
We are the parents of Carolina Victoria, our names are Igor and Ada. We have two teenage sons and a long-awaited and beloved daughter Carolina (4.5 years old). I'm Carolina's father and I am a bee farmer in the summer (I have my own small bee yard) and a house builder in the winter. Carolina's mother Ada is a housewife and she's bringing up the three children. We live in the town of Kotovsk in the Odessa Region of Ukraine.
We have a very united and happy family. Our both sons do well at school and get awards for studying hard. Our dear daughter is very talented and has an inquisitive mind.
When pregnant, her mother decided that the girl would be named Victoria, but when she was born I named her Carolina, that is, the Queen. So we decided to give her a double name: Carolina Victoria. Our Queen was growing up and everything was great.
6 months ago, in the winter, we noticed some changes in Carolina's behavior: she began crying at nights and became fretful and was scared of everything. In spring there also appeared some kind of aggression and nervousness. We looked for reasons all over the Internet, but all we could find was hyperactivity. Then we came to think that it was our attention that spoiled the girl.
And then it all happened very fast. In May she began to stumble all the time asking to be carried in our arms, her eyes looked very tired, and we noticed speech changes and drooling. In June we brought our daughter to Odessa for an examination, and for 2 weeks the doctors could not determine what the matter was. We had to go home.
On June 18 and 19 our child began to change dramatically: she could not focus her eyes or walk and began to mumble. In the morning we already were at the Regional Children's Hospital. After the first CT the girl was diagnosed with encephalopyosis, and after the MRI we heard the terrible diagnosis: brain stem tumor.
At that moment the worst was the fact that the doctors refused to do a surgery saying that the tumor was inoperable and no one would be able to help us. Despairing and hoping at the same time, we grabbed the child and went to Kiev. The doctors of the Cancer Institute of the Neurosurgery Research Institute also said they could not help. So we went home and spent 3 weeks sending our daughter's MRI scans to numerous clinics in Moscow (Burdenko Research Institute), Israel, Germany, USA and Turkey. All of them refused to help. Even for money no one wanted to try and save the girl.
Finally a MIRACLE happened: Professor Khachatryan from the Polenov Institute in St. Petersburg agreed to perform a surgery. The situation was complicated by the financial side - we are foreigners in Russia, and the surgery costs us a fortune, but there are many very good people among our relatives and friends in Ukraine and Russia, and we managed to find the money for the surgery. 30% of tumor was removed (it was not possible to remove more) and a biopsy was performed. 10 days have passed. The girl is still in a very grave condition but she's recovering. Based on histology results it is an astrocytoma or grade II glioma, that is, low-grade tumor.
Carolina was prescribed radiation therapy starting on August 4 as well as concomitant treatment. All that can be administered at the children's unit of City Hospital 31.
The girl needs help urgently. All financial sources we had have already been used up, and we have borrowed a certain sum too. In order to complete the treatment course we need a large sum of money, for we are foreigners here.
Carolina so wants to run, play and ride a bike but for now she cannot even sit, she has been lying in bed for over a week now. Radiation therapy will cost 100,000 to 200,000 roubles, and we do not have such funds, which is why we have to ask you for help.
Please help us save our Carolina Victoria, because the worst is already in the past and we have good chances of saving her. Thank you all very much.

Respectfully,
Igor (father), Ada (mother),
Roman and Artur (brothers)
Address:
ul. Lenina, d. 2, kv. 35, 66300 Kotovsk,
Odessa Region, Ukraine
Telephone in St. Petersburg:
+7 (921) 654-98-55

Medical summary
Operative notes

Update as of September 6, 2010. Karolina is now in Oncology Center in Seattle (USA) at the consultation. Her family raised money for the trip. The latest news about Carolina and her treatment plans are available at the forum.

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