Normal, healthy life suddenly ended. Unfortunate coincidence leads to a tragedy!

It was the summer of 2021, a week before a long-awaited holiday in Romania. It which was supposed to be one of those “dream trips”. Unfortunately, everything fell apart. A single walk in the forest ruined all our dreams and plans. Ewelina was bitten by a tick for the first time in her life. 

3 August 2021 - Ewelina returns to Poland from Romania in a bad health condition to the hospital in Rzeszów, where the first diagnosis is made—a suspicion of tick-borne encephalitis.

4 August 2021 - Ewelina is admitted to the infectious diseases ward of the hospital in Mielec.

5 August 2021 - Ewelina's condition is worsening. She starts to experience her first neurological issues. 

She cannot speak. Her left hand is paralysed. 

6 August 2021 - Ewelina's condition is critical. She is immediately transferred to the ICU of the university hospital in Cracow. 

In the following weeks, she remains in the ICU. She is in a medically induced coma and put on a ventilator. She undergoes a tracheostomy and develops pancreatitis and West Nile virus.

When after a couple of attempts, the doctors manage to wake her up from the coma and then put her off the ventilator, it turns out that tick-borne encephalitis caused paralysis and devastated her body. As a result, Ewelina must stay in the hospital for the next three months. 

Between 8 October 2021 and 20 January 2022, Ewelina stays in the rehabilitation centre in Cracow. Her family and friends organise the first fundraiser to cover the enormous costs of specialised care and physical therapy. Unfortunately, the complications are still retaining. 

During that period, Ewelina is admitted to the hospital twice. 

She must immediately undergo life-saving surgery again to remove granulation tissue from her body, which makes her difficult to breathe. 

The disease destroys her body, and she loses weight to 100 pounds (ca. 45 kg). 

Every 20 minutes the nurse must suck off mucus from Ewelina's larynx. 

It is difficult for her to eat, and there are other neurological issues, including epilepsy and losing consciousness, followed by pneumonia. 

20 January—today 

Ewelina stays in a specialised rehabilitation centre in Olsztyn, struggling with epilepsy and coronavirus. She takes her first steps and makes her first sounds. After Easter, she goes back to the hospital to have her breathing improved using a tracheostomy tube. A double fight for life is getting started.

Currently, we are running out of all savings and funds collected from the first fundraiser. Ewelina has to become aware that she might lose a chance to continue physical therapy and laryngologist and neurologist appointments at the end of the summer. In a nutshell, she will lose an opportunity to recover. 

We would appreciate any donation that will help Ewelina regain health.