Hearts Days Night
We, the members of the # SomnenieChallenge team, have decided to host a charity dinner called Hearts Days Night. Our goal is to save children’s hearts. Every day in Ukraine, 12 children are born with heart defects. Their lives can be changed by an operation to implant a cardiac device.
This operation is performed without opening the chest, without stopping the heart, and without deep anesthesia. Within three days a healthy child can leave the hospital. The only drawback of this procedure is its cost. For many families in Ukraine such an operation is unaffordable. That is why our goal is to raise funds to help these children. We truly want to know that the heart we have repaired together will be beating in the chest of a little person. Let’s give life together.
The goal of the project is to raise funds to purchase cardiac implants for children with heart defects. The operation is performed free of charge at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery named after M. M. Amosov.
Vitya Lemeshchuk, 26.12.2002 (14 years), village Chotyrboki, Khmelnytskyi region
Open‑heart surgery, hospital stays, fear, long and painful rehabilitation—Viti has already endured all of this. He was only 4 years old then. Now he is 13, but the insidious disease still won’t let go. The child suffers from constant dizziness and high blood pressure. He cannot live a full life. Viti’s entire existence is under the watchful eye of cardiologists. On 11.10.2016, Kyiv doctors confirmed that a repeat operation was needed! For a mother and child who know what an open‑heart surgery means, that sounds like a death sentence. Fortunately, the defect can be closed with a stent. The money required to purchase it is not available to the single mother. There is no work in the village, and the family survives on household chores. Together we can give Viti health and a childhood where active play with peers becomes a reality, not a distant dream!
Maksym Simkin, 31.01.2000 (16 years), Dnipro
Maxim is a true man, a pillar for his family! Maxim has four sisters, and for each of them he is a friend, a mentor, and a beloved brother. His father is a retired pensioner, a group‑3 disabled. His mother, due to her health condition, had to leave work. Last year Maxim’s dream came true: he enrolled in the Paton Dnipro Technical College of Welding and Electronics, specializing in “Software Development”. During a physical‑education class the teacher advised the boy to undergo a medical examination in order to join a special group. In the polyclinic the cardiogram showed a change in the myocardium. By summer Maxim found it hard to breathe and became extremely fatigued. When the ambrosia started to bloom, he began to gasp for air. A repeat cardiogram showed myocardial changes and tachycardia. Diagnosis: congenital heart defect, interatrial septal defect 9 mm. An urgent operation is needed. Maxim has even managed to raise half of the required amount.
Matyushchenko Liza, 07.10.2011 (5 years), village Vladyslavka, Kyiv region
Nothing hinted at trouble, and when Liza turned 4, doctors diagnosed an interventricular septal defect. Numerous examinations confirmed the serious diagnosis and left no chance that surgery would not be needed. The girl's mother is on maternity leave, caring for Liza's 9‑month‑old sister. The father works as a market vendor, earning about 4 000 UAH per month. Over the past year the family has been unable to find funds to purchase the implant. Liza's father is asking all of us: please help Liza enjoy a happy childhood!
Kryuchkova Sofiia, 21.10.2008 (8 years), Kryvyi Rih
“Sonia, don’t run, don’t jump, stop—you’re not allowed.” That’s all the hyper‑active little Sonia hears. And she can’t help it—she needs to move! Sonia used to do rock climbing, take part in children’s bike races, climb to a 30‑metre height, go on hikes. Then a heart defect appeared. In Sonia’s heart it’s raining, and her heart needs a little umbrella to cover the hole, so she can once again outrun the boys at school, ride her bike and climb, taking first place. The family has two children, eight and twelve years old; the girls are growing, and the money goes to clothes, training, school, and so on. They also have a loan, and Sonia’s grandfather needed an operation— the whole family helped as best they could, unfortunately without success. The parents’ salaries aren’t enough to gather the amount needed to buy the implant, so we urgently need your help. Shall we give Sonia her “umbrella”?
Anastasiia Gerashchenko, 07.11.2012 (4 years), Kyiv
Nastia is the second child in the family. Her parents learned about her heart defects (aneurysmal outpouching with DMPP ruptures, open arterial duct VAP) when she was three months old. At that time she had breathing problems, especially while eating, and she showed a cyanotic nasolabial triangle. The parents immediately turned to specialists at cardiac centers (including the Amosov National Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery). There they were told that surgery was needed and Nastia was placed on a waiting list. For four years the family has been hoping for the situation to improve, but nothing has changed so far. Now Nastia needs surgery to correct two defects. Over these years her relatives have tried to raise the necessary funds for a minimally invasive operation for Nastia, but the family’s income does not allow them to gather such a huge sum. Nastia’s father works as a club manager; he is a karate coach at a public school and earns 3,000–3,500 UAH. He also tries to give private lessons, but they are irregular. Her mother does not work and is on maternity leave caring for the child, because Nastia often falls ill and cannot attend kindergarten. She tires quickly and cannot play active games with other children, and when she gets sick it is a real ordeal for her, as breathing becomes extremely difficult. The parents appeal to everyone who cares: please help Nastia! The Herashchenko family thanks everyone in advance.
Nadiia Nikitina, 11 years old, Danilivka village, Mykolaiv region
Nadiika’s life began in the hospital. Complicated birth, doctors refused a C‑section, a terrifying verdict – a child with a disability. All of this cheerful girl’s childhood has been a series of fragments between rehabilitation courses and sanatorium‑resort stays that “eat up” the modest family budget. And now a heart defect as well. Like a bolt from the blue, this diagnosis became a death sentence for a single mother. The cost of a heart implant is simply unaffordable for the family. The mother can’t find peace, because her beloved child is suffering. But all of this can be easily fixed, because the world is not without good people…
All details and documentation are here.
How it happened
Give a child a healthy heartbeat
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