Cystic fibrosis (CF or mucoviscidosis) is the most wide-spread genetically transmitted disease. Not so long ago people with this disease could hardly hope to reach 20 years of age. At the terminal stage of CF the life of a patient directly depends on the intake of additional oxygen. The Happy Child Foundation is raising money to purchase devices which would replace the huge oxygen tanks in clinics: oxygen concentrators. They will be given to the sick children of the Zaporozhye region, whose parents will never be able to save enough money to purchase the expensive equipment on their own.
A characteristic feature of this disease is mucus and pancreatic duct and secretion of hyper viscosity. It leads to serious lung dysfunctions: children stifle as are not able to expectorate sputum. CF used to be a terminal disease, a verdict. Doctors are still not able to kill it, but now it is possible to improve and prolong the life of patients. Regular and systematic treatment gives CF patients a chance to live long enough to go to their prom, to feel their first kiss, to see the smile of their children. But even if the treatment is done properly, sooner or later the oxygen in the air is not enough to come through the affected lungs. Then the only chance to survive is to get extra oxygen. But it is available only in clinics. And the life in a clinic, being connected to an oxygen tank for months… is not the life one would like for one’s child.
There are special devices called oxygen concentrators, which separate oxygen from the air and transmit it to patients through tubes. They are not inflammable and very user friendly. With such a concentrator, even at the terminal stage of the disease children can live at home, with their family, sleep in their own beds, play with the toys they love, meet their friends, study… The bad part is that such patients need expensive drugs costing families UAH 15-17 thousand (1,800 – 2,000 US dollars) every month. Such families have no money left to purchase the concentrators. So, those children have to either literally live in clinics or die at home from asphyxia.
The Happy Child Foundation provides support to the Zaporozhye region families having children with this terrible diagnosis. At the moment there are three children with dangerously low level of oxygen in blood. There is not much time, so the Foundation has provided funds for the purchase of two oxygen concentrators from its own reserves. But there are no more funds left, and so far we will not be able to help any new patients. The total number of children with CF in the Zaporozhye region is 57. We do not know who of the children will need concentrators first. But we know for sure that there will be such needs. And those devices will give them a chance to breathe, a chance to live. So our Happy Child Foundation needs help in purchasing two more oxygen concentrators for children with CF. The total amount to be raised is UAH 27,360 (approximately 3,352 US dollars).
