Much suffering in one so young! Save little Erica from disability!

“I’m sorry. Your baby girl was born with a serious foot malformation” said the doctor after my little daughter was born. I could hardly see through tears... Since her birth my little Erica lives with the stigma of deformity... Much suffering in one so young. If our appeal is successful and the line goes green, our daughter will have a chance living normal life free of her disability! But there is hope and it is within a reach. Please look into her blue eyes, full of boundless innocence and help... please  change her life forever only YOU have the power to do this!

For a long time my husband and I couldn’t have a child. Our happiness was endless when we found out that I was pregnant. Our long wait was dually rewarded by the joyful news that  I was pregnant with tweens. But our joy was short lived . One test had changed everything, it took away our happiness and within seconds our lives were shattered. One of our girls was going to be born sick. There was something wrong with her leg. What? The doctors couldn’t say. We  were going to find out after her birth.

Joy, fear, disbelief and sorrow...endless questions without answers. Why her? Will she suffer? Will she be able to walk? What future awaits her? Although I couldn’t wait to meet my little girls, I dreaded the inevitable... I was terrified by the thought of not be able to help my baby. Unfortunately all my feelings become real...

I remember the first cry of my little girls... I remember the expression on the doctor’s face and his words...” the malformation is severe”. He asked if I want to see the sick baby girl..my little Erica. Tiny lips, tiny fingers, the most beautiful eyes in the whole world...and this deformed tiny leg, half the length of the healthy one. I could feel tears flowing down my face, my throat squeezed by grief, my voice breaking down. “I am going to love you the most in the world “ it’s all I could say ... I was crying from the emotion, pain and fear. The midwife was crying with me.

Little Erica was born without the fibula, with much shorter tibia and severe foot malformation. She has only three little toes ... This is a very rare defect. It happens to 1 in every 50 000 births. In  Poland only a few children each year are born with such a condition...including our little Erica. Our other daughter - my second half of the world, Ingrid, is perfectly healthy and happy child.

I’m looking at Erica’s malformed leg and realise the brutal truth-she will never be able to walk! When she grows older her foot will be at the level of her healthy knee...Erica will never walk, run, jump with joy or dance with laughter. She is sentenced to spend her life in a wheelchair.  I started to seek help. Searching for information, seeing doctors. All in vain. All Polish specialists can offer is amputation of the deformed limb and using prosthesis for life! But then again despite all of this her little leg is warm and alive! Little Erica is moving it happily...how can I agree to the amputation? How can I allow for the mutilation of my child and further her disability?

I kept searching for possibilities. I found an American doctor, Dr. Paley, a world-renowned children’s orthopaedist who specialises in treating such disorders. He helps children, who were condemned  for amputation to stand on their own feet! He operates even on the most complicated cases such as Erica’s. Most important is the fact that he frequently comes to Poland where he trains Polish doctors. We went for a consultation... He agreed to operate on Erica during one of his visits to Poland. This means we don’t have to go to the clinic in the USA which significantly reduces the cost. Medical care in the USA is one of the most expensive in the world...So for Erica  this is real opportunity that we cannot miss.

“Your daughter will not differ from her peers “- the doctors from the European Paley Institute told us. “We will fix her leg”... Our hearts started to thump faster again but this time from happiness. They gave us 100% guarantee that Erica will regain her mobility and will be able walk, ran, jump and dance with her little sister...Ingrid has just stared to take her first uncertain steps on her healthy legs...Erica would love to follow her... she attempts to stand up but immediately falls... she doesn’t understand why she is unsuccessful...all she can manage is to crawl ...seeing this breaks my heart every time Erica is facing foot reconstruction, straightening and elongation of the tibia and then long rehabilitation.

However what we lack is money and time... Polish NHS is not refunding the cost of such operations and the cost is overwhelming...we are also running out of time, the operation must  happen when the child is of a certain age between 18 - 24 months old before calcification of the bones begins and is too late.

On my behalf as well as my husband and daughters I’m asking you please help us to fight for Erica’s chance for a disability free life. We would love to see her growing happily, walking, running and enjoying her life without limits. Every little donation helps and is highly appreciated. Please donate and help us to help our little Erica!