Let's save Emilia's life!

23.11.2021:

URGENT❗We have an estimate for the operation that will save Emilka's life❗Help is needed!

Dear Friends, we have just received information regarding the amount we will have to pay for the operation on our daughter's heart.

The Clinic in Stanford has issued us an invoice for more than 1, 400,000 million dollars, for the operation itself. On top of that there is a heart catheterization procedure and necessary medical transport by air. We are devastated...

We were hoping for less..... However, such a high price means only one thing - Emilka's heart defect is very complicated!

Emilka should be in Stanford in 5 months at the latest! We have so little time to raise this massive

amount of money! For us our daughter's life is priceless. But how are we supposed to pay for it when it has been priced? How can we make such a large amount of money to pay for the operation...?

We will fight for our little miracle, our little treasure, until we lose our strength. Despite the pain and suffering she has already had, Emilka is a happy child, she enjoys every second in this world. She wants to live so much!

We are fighting for you, my daughter - you will enjoy your life, together with your sister!

And all of you, dear friends, please stay with us, donate and share our fundraiser, as many people as

possible have to know about our brave Emilka. This is the only way our little girl has a chance to

survive... Please, don't let her die...

Ania and Michał, parents

30.09.2021:

URGENT! We have received a medical transportation estimate!

Dear Friends,

Emilka is recovering from an urgent cardiac surgical intervention, which took place at the University Children's Hospital in Krakow. Today, she is slowly gaining strength and is beginning to smile again.

We have more time, but Emilka’s heart is still in critical condition! The full correction of Emilka’s heart can only be carried out in a clinic in Stanford/USA! Only there will our daughter get a chance to live...

We are in constant contact with the clinic and are awaiting the final cost estimate of Emilka’s operation, which will reach a million dollars. The significant amount of money we need, keeps us awake at night…

We have just learned the cost of the medical transportation Emilka will need to get to Stanford. A child with such a severe heart defect needs additional medical care during the flight; otherwise, there is no chance to safely reach Stanford, where the doctors will undertake the extremely difficult operation …

As a result of this situation, we are forced to increase the amount of the collection. We are not slowing down in this difficult fight for the life and health of our daughter! We cannot afford even a moment of doubt, although bad thoughts persistently demand our attention...

Daughter we will not give up. We will fight for you until the end...

Please, dear helpers, stay with us!

In the 22nd week of pregnancy, we learned that our daughter, Emilka, has a heart defect.  Tears, disbelief, anger, hope—these are a few words that described our feelings that are with us still to this day. We hoped that the defect would be small, after all, every hundredth child is born with a heart defect, which often does not even need surgery, just monitoring. After the next exam, the news that we heard from the doctor changed all of our lives forever…

“It’s a severe heart defect: Tetralogy of Fallot, pulmonary artery valve artesia, extreme hypoplasia of the pulmonary trunk and pulmonary arteries.” No one in Poland and Europe reconstructs them.  It typically involves many surgeries, many hospital stays with an uncertain prognosis…. "You have to prepare for this, a hard time is ahead of you" - we were told during pregnancy… We were waiting for her delivery, and a lot was still unknown.  In what condition would she be in? Will she be able to breathe?  We hoped that the doctor was wrong and her heart wasn’t so bad after all.

When Emilka was born at 39 weeks, she was stable enough for me to hold her and hug her but only for a few seconds. The following days were a fog—the pain that a mother experiences when she cannot be with her own child after birth cannot be described. A sea of ​​shed tears, helplessness, fear, an awareness that my baby is sleeping alone, somewhere in a hospital room surrounded by beeping monitors and twisting cables…

... It turned out that Emilka is very strong, and lives thanks to the collateral circulation, "MAPCAS", that her body created to supply her lungs with oxygen. Thanks to them she breathes and does not choke.  But as Emilia grows, these "MAPCAS" will disappear and our daughter will not be able to perform basic activities and eventually will suffocate. The necessary operation, which was to be performed immediately after birth, was postponed and we were allowed to take her home for 4 weeks. It was the most wonderful, but also the most stressful time in our lives.

This defect is very serious, and in Poland Emilka’s only option is a series of multiple operations that will prolong her life and suffering, but will never fully cure her. The only clinic in the world that could reconstruct her smaller pulmonary arteries to save her life is located in Stanford University, in the USA.  The cost of treatment is immense, close to a million dollars. We have contacted the hospital, and are waiting for a treatment proposal and cost estimate. Right now, we are at a point where we want to start raising funds to get to Stanford as soon as possible, to give Emilka a chance.

Currently, Emilka is hospitalized in Krakow.  Her initial hospital visit was to be a controlled stay where we would be able to be with her all the time.  Unfortunately, on the day of admission, Emilka’s condition suddenly worsened, and we have not been able to be with her as much as we hoped.  It has been very difficult to see pain and tears in the eyes of such an innocent, beautiful child.  Yet somehow, she finds a way to smile at us despite it all…she is so strong!  Now, we are asking everyone and anyone for help and support.  Like every child, Emilka deserves a chance to live.