Fundraiser finished
Piotr Maciuk - main photo

Brain tumor is growing❗️Peter needs URGENT surgery!

Fundraiser goal: Cancer treatment in Tubingen, Germany

Fundraiser started by:
Piotr Maciuk, 15 years old
Wrocław, dolnośląskie
Brain tumor
Starts on: 8 December 2021
Ends on: 28 February 2022
PLN 394,705
Donated by 5974 people

Pledge 1.5% of tax

KRS0000396361
Purpose of 1.5% of tax0158105 Piotr

Fundraiser goal: Cancer treatment in Tubingen, Germany

Fundraiser started by:
Piotr Maciuk, 15 years old
Wrocław, dolnośląskie
Brain tumor
Starts on: 8 December 2021
Ends on: 28 February 2022

Fundraiser result

Nieustannie towarzyszy nam ogromna wdzięczność i wzruszenie za hojność wszystkich, którzy wsparli leczenie naszego syna, który walczy z nowotworem już ponad 9 lat! Chcielibyśmy móc każdemu z Was osobiście podziękować. Modlimy się o Boże błogosławieństwo dla Was. Piotrek przeszedł w maju 8-godzinną operację neurochirurgiczną w Klinice Uniwersyteckiej w Tybindze. Profesor Schuhmann usunął większą część rosnącego guza.

Ponieważ po operacji pojawiły się silne wymioty - zbadano ponownie głowę Piotrka (USG i tomografem). Okazało się, że komory mózgu się powiększają, stąd objawy wodogłowia u chłopca. Profesor zdecydował o konieczności udrożnienia przepływu płynu mózgowo-rdzeniowego. Jako pierwszą opcję zaplanował endoskopowe umieszczenie w głowie Piotrka metalowego implantu, który miał stworzyć nową drogę dla obiegu płynu. Piotrek znów trafił na stół operacyjny.

Piotr Maciuk

Kilka dni później okazało się, że ta interwencja nie pomogła i wymioty wróciły. Konieczna była trzecia operacja, w czasie której umieszczono w ciele Piotrka stałą zastawkę odprowadzającą płyn do jamy otrzewnowej.

Profesor zakłada, że operowany guz powinien dać nam kilka lat spokoju. Musimy jednak regularnie monitorować pooperacyjne resztki drugiego guza (przy prawym w przewodzie słuchowym) - bo tam stabilnie niestety nie jest i może być za jakiś czas potrzebna kolejna operacja. Ratująca życie zastawka niesie też problemy: trzeba się liczyć z jej awarią. W połowie września Piotrek zaczął od rana intensywnie wymiotować i przysypiał, a to objawy wzrostu ciśnienia śródczaszkowego. Zdecydowaliśmy się na kontrolę w Warszawie. Tomograf wykazał powiększenie komór. Piotrek musiał w związku z tym znów trafić na V piętro Centrum Zdrowia Dziecka, czyli na oddział neurochirurgii. Wymieniono mu całą zastawkę, dlatego znów był cięty w trzech miejscach (2 x głowa + brzuch).

Piotr Maciuk

Piotrek po zdjęciu szwów powrócił do intensywnej rehabilitacji i choć wciąż miewa gorsze chwile, to powoli nabiera sił. Nadal jednak do zdrowienia chłopiec potrzebuje wsparcia specjalistów różnych dziedzin. Efektem jego historii choroby i leczenia jest galopująca skolioza wymagająca nieustannej kosztownej rehabilitacji.  Chłopiec po chemioterapiach nie odzyskał też wciąż odporności, więc wspieramy go wartościowymi suplementami i wozimy zimą nad Bałtyk, licząc na dobroczynne działanie jodu.

Rehabilitacji wymaga też nerw twarzowy uszkodzony w trakcie jednej z operacji (niestety Piotrek utracił wtedy też trwale słuch w jednym uchu). Piotrek ze względu na stan zdrowia nie chodzi do szkoły - ma nauczanie indywidualne online. Wciąż trzeba też monitorować sytuację w jego głowie przez regularne badanie rezonansem.

Fundraiser description

We are raising funds for our beloved 11-year-old son Piotruś (Peter) as he needs to have a third brain cancer surgery in 2022 in Tubingen in Germany. Our son has already had 2 brain surgeries in his life and currently has been having chemotherapy for the last 15 months which will come to an end in January 2022. Despite having such a long phase of chemotherapy, his brain tumor, (a malignant cancer growing out of his brainstem) is getting bigger and there is an urgent need for another dangerous and expensive brain surgery.

Piotr Maciuk

When he was 3, Peter began tilting his head towards one side and had light sensitivity (photophobia) for several weeks when his GP said it was acute torticollis. To alleviate the symptoms, Peter had many physiotherapy sessions. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a noticeable improvement in his condition and as a result Peter’s GP accused us of not trying hard enough to help our son. When Peter started being sick, he was referred to have an MRI scan. Sadly, the result of the MRI scan revealed that Peter had a cancerous brain tumour. As a family we were devastated, Peter has been battling cancer now for over for 8 years. 

After the initial brain tumour diagnosis in 2013, Peter had his first life-threating surgery to remove it.  Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to safely remove all of the tumour so further treatment with chemotherapy was needed to treat the abnormal cells left behind. Thankfully the first course of chemotherapy Peter had stopped the tumour from growing, but left him with a very low immune system. Once his immune system was boosted by good nutrition and supplements, he was able to participate in specialist physiotherapy sessions.  This enabled Peter to regain strength in his hands and legs, re-learn how to speak, hold his head straight, chew and swallow food.  

During 2014 –to 2019 Peter was a regular cancer clinic out-patient and was regularly checked and tested. However in March 2019 the MRI scan, sadly found a new brain tumour. This aggressive tumour was in a hard to reach part of the brain and had to be removed immediately. After the second brain surgery, Peter lost his hearing in one ear and his facial nerves on one side were damaged resulting in his face being paralysed. A long-lasting rehabilitation treatment helped to improve the functioning of facial nerves to some extent, but his hearing has not come back. 

Piotr Maciuk

Peter’s dramatic story doesn’t end here, a third MRI scan in April 2020 showed that Peter’s first brain tumour had started to grow back in the original site in his brain as 8 years ago. The 1-year course of chemotherapy that Peter had back in 2014 had stopped the abnormal group of cancer cells from growing, but had not fully removed them.  After seeing a consultant paediatrician at the Child’s Health Centre in July 2020, Peter started his second course of chemotherapy.  An MRI scan revealed that the tumour was still growing despite the chemotherapy treatment.  According to the consultant, Peter has to finish his chemotherapy in January 2022 and will continue having hospital appointments every 10 days. We don’t know why Peter’s primary tumour has become resistant to drug treatment.

Peter has been consulted by the best neurosurgeons in Poland and abroad. They all agreed that the best way forward for him would be to have another brain surgery quickly. As Peter’s parents we have been living with uncertainty that his cancer may come back, and find this diagnosis frightening and overwhelming. We still remember very well what Peter felt like after having his first two brain surgeries and what side effect he was getting. Feeling sad and depressed, suffering and crying a lot, his enormous tears and heart-breaking words that we can still hear in our ears and heads: “I don’t want to live. I want to die…”

Peter is fed up with having a brain tumour, hospitals, MRI scans and vein drips. We don’t even know how to start a conversation with him about having a third brain surgery – which will be equally long and dangerous as the other two operations. We are so scared of what his reaction might be. How is he going to cope with it? Peter is extremely brave but very sensitive at the same time. The only consolation we have to offer to him is that he will have his third brain surgery in the best hospital in Europe. 

Piotr Maciuk

We are paralysed with fear because we are aware of the complications this surgery could have. But we can’t and won’t give up.  We have been trying to get on with life and focus on everyday tasks in order not to get defeated by overwhelming fear. The best thing we can do is to provide the best hospital care we can in the best hospital for cancer treatment, which is in Tubingen in Germany. To make the impossible possible, we must raise a lot of money to pay for Peter’s brain surgery within one month. We are still waiting to hear about the final cost of the medical bill. However, the preliminary estimate say it may be as much as 300,000 PLN.(€65,000/£55,000). The surgery will only be booked if we can make a 300,000 PLN bank transfer to reserve it. We don’t have much time left as the brain tumour is still growing. 

It is said that it is not only the child who fights with cancer, it is his family too. We have been in this fight for 8 years now thinking it has been too much to shoulder. Therefore, we will be grateful till the day we die if you donate whatever money you can spare. We rely on good-hearted people like you to support and help us save our Peter. We urgently need your help. Please donate now!

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There is more information about Peter’s medical history and his fight with brain cancer on our blog: http://dzielnypiotrek.blogspot.com 

Like our Facebook page to keep up to date: https://www.facebook.com/DzielnyPiotrek/ 

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