Alyona Shalimova would not get her treatment without the support of Podari.Life donors. It is only because of your generous donations that we were able to buy Defitelio – a medicine without which doctors could not start Alyona’s bone marrow transplant.
Alyona was born on February 21, 2017. She was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 10 months old. It was an ordinary test after an ordinary flu that showed blast cells in the baby’s blood.
Leukemia in infants is so rare that even the largest hospitals may see only a handful of cases per year. Infant leukemia is very aggressive; it poorly reacts to any treatment, and this difficulty is amplified by the vulnerability of infants to complications and toxicity of the procedures and medicines.
The girl was lucky twice. First, doctors from Blagoveschensk, her hometown, send Alyona to a leading Russian center for infant leukemia - Ekaterinburg Children's Clinical Hospital. Second, the doctors in Ekaterinburg were able to put Alyona into remission. Unfortunately, there was also bad news. Remission is not a cure. The bone marrow transplant was needed to complete the treatment, and the girl's mom, Svetlana, could be a donor for her daughter.
However, the transplant was impossible without Defitelio. It turned out, that back in Blagoveschensk Alyona was infected with hepatitis C, presumably, via blood transfusions. Hepatitis C makes patient’s liver extremely vulnerable during bone marrow transplant. The risk of veno-occlusive hepatic disease that can be lethal increases dramatically.
That is why a patient needs to be protected with Defitelio from the very first day of the transplant procedure.
Defitelio is not registered in Russia, so it cannot be funded by medical insurance, but it costs 34 thousand Euro (more than 40 thousand USD). And Alyona’s mother who alone raises her three children cannot afford to buy this medicine. The only way to save the girl’s life is to ask charity to help.
We are very proud and happy, that you, our supporters, made a miracle for the little girl. It is due to your donations we were able to pay for Alyona’s Defitelio as soon as we were informed about her needs. Alyona started to get Defitelio on June 1; and her bone marrow transplant was performed on June 9. There is a long way to recovery in front of her now. It will definitely be difficult. Yet, we hope that with the help of mom, doctors and Defitelio, that you have provided for her, the girl will overcome her disease.