Oznobikhina Olya, 5 month

We were late and two hours ago our little teddy bear has left us. We were discharged from hospital two days ago. Olya smiled, ate well and turned sideways. But today she cried constantly, starting in the morning. All day long parents carried her in their arms. Around 10 pm 22:00 Irkutsk time she has died practically in my embrace. Doctors could not do anything. She has died before the first aid arrived. For 40 minutes doctors have tried to resuscitate Olya. But her heart did not beat again.

Olya’ story had begun 4 months before she was born. My daughter-in-law, Olesya, and I came to the planned ultrasound visit to the Irkutsk diagnostic center. Both of us were anxious to find out if our little one was a girl or a boy. A doctor was reading parameters, looking at the arms, legs, etc. Then she looks at the screen closer and says that the baby turned sideways and she could not see... She is staring at the monitor, staring and frowning. My daughter in law asked her impatiently: “So is it a boy???” The doctor’s reply was harsh: “Why would you care... Your baby has severe heart defect. She is going to die right after birth. You can try to get a surgery in Bakulev clinic, although such children die within first 48 hours after birth. I’d suggest abortion at this point.” And then added “by the way — it’s a girl”.

I looked at the monitor, and the tiny one — now we know it’s a little baby girl — is moving so actively, and it looks to me that she is waving to me with her tiny hands. We stepped out of the cabinet, hugged with my daughter in law and burst into tears. What should we do? In Bakuleva clinic we were told to try a second opinion at another hospital. But if the diagnosis will be confirmed to terminate the pregnancy. In the cardio surgery department in Irkutsk diagnostic center a doctor draw a picture of a human heart, and explained that exact diagnosis can be told only after the baby is born. At that current time there was a 70% of this diagnosis being correct, but there was another 30% that it was not correct. Where is our little baby girl is going to be after she is born: dangerous 70% or a giving hope 30%?

Now we need to decide: should we kill our baby, or let her live? My daughter-in-law has some health problems, so termination of the pregnancy so late into term may make her unable to have children ever in the future. So we made our hard choice. Someone may judge us for that, someone may say it was wrong, but we did. Our little baby girl was born February 14th. She was breathing, taking a bottle. First 48 hours of fear, helplessness passed by and we started to get hope again. On the 4th day a doctor gave us hope: partial correction of the heart defect is possible, and Novosibirsk clinic is ready to take us. My granddaughter had a surgery on February 25. 5 days she was laying with her chest open, as her heart increased in size after surgery and doctors were unable to close it. But most importantly our little girl HAD SURVIVED! The only one out of all the children was had Norwood surgery in Novosibirsk! It was already a miracle!

For the full recovery Olya needs to undergo two more surgeries on her little heart. These surgeries can be done only in Berlin, and cardiocenter in Berlin is ready to take us at the end of August. We cannot wait longer than that. Cost of one surgery is 40000 euros. To pay for these surgeries all by ourselves is impossible to us. We have less than a month to collect all the money: Olya’s little heart increased in size after first surgery — it is more than 70% bigger than her little chest, our baby girl does not put on any weight, gets bluish. That is why it is very important to have her operated as soon as it is possible. We beg you, please, help us save our little baby girl!