Hello, my name is Ekaterina!

   In June, 2007 on 38th week of pregnancy my daughter Elizabeth was born by an emergency Caesarean section. Being in a section for a newborns, my girl has had a pneumonia and were treated with antibiotics. In 11 days doctors have told us that the child is healthy, we were written out.
   At home though I began to notice that baby is rolling her eyes, but the pediatrist said that it is temporary, something to do with a weak muscles and will pass in a couple of months naturally. It has increased instead, plus there were strange moves, like "foldings" of hands and legs and spasms of whole little body of the baby. The pediatrist has calmed me down, saying that it is a tummy, and we long and persistently treated it with various drugs. Few weeks later being 1,5 months old she was still not able to concentrate on a toy or to recognize her relatives. "Foldings" increased with catastrophic speed, reached an 80 to 100 times in a series, and such series could happened from 12 to 15 times a day.
   I went for a consultation at the children's center of N.A.Semashko (main one in Moscow). After the EEG and MRI were made and few consultations with Epileptologists we heard a terrible diagnosis: "OHTAHARA SYNDROME". This is one of the most SEVERE FORMS OF EPILEPSY, which is not yet fully examined by doctors. There are very few people with this diagnosis in the world. According to statistics, 7 out of 15 children die, simply because seizures causing death of the brain cells. Because of these attacks weak child organism does not develop and get stronger. And all that is happening to my Liza. My child is slowly dying on my eyes!
   The reason for our diagnosis - Focal Cortical Dysplasia in the right occipital area of the brain - is not well-formed occipital area of the brain, which causing seizures.
   A doctor appointed us the strongest seizure medicine - Sabril, Frizium and Konvuleks. These drugs are very expensive. For example, one pack of Sabril (100 tablets) in Moscow is 5000 rubles (around 100 pounds or a bit more in Euros), we take 4 pills daily, so even a whole pack for a month is not enough. All these drugs have a large number of side effects. They are violating the visual function, there is blood in the urine - kidney can not cope with such a large amount of chemicals. On top of that the actual drugs treatment is not enough and doctors recommend that we do the operation and are convinced if we do not do an emergency surgery, the child may die. Such a complex operation can be done in Germany only.
    Thanks to the great effort of many good people we have been able to contact the clinic in Germany, which is located in the city of Bielefeld. But it took a whole six months, when time for us is so precious! After all the documents etc were sent we have finally received a confirmation from the hospital. Primary pre-examination should take place in February 2009, when we will have to make the first payment of 13,500 Euros. The full cost of pre-surveys and the operation is 50,000 Euros.

    We hope and believe that we will overcome everything, and Liza will live. We badly need your help, hope, faith and support. I therefore appeal to all who has a kind soul and who has an opportunity to help save my Liza, when there is still a chance to do so!

  I thank you from all my loving and suffering heart and and on behalf of my little daughter!