Dolina Anastasiia

At three years old, Nastusia Doliniy has a congenital heart defect—a secondary defect of the interatrial septum. Nine months after she contracted chickenpox, doctors began hearing loud murmurs in her heart. An ultrasound was performed and revealed the congenital heart defect. The parents were immediately reassured and advised to monitor the situation, as there are cases where a small child's heart is still developing and the defect can close on its own.

But Nastunya started getting sick with colds very often. Her parents were very worried that the constant illnesses could adversely affect the child's heart, and in December 2014 they traveled to Kyiv for examination. After undergoing examinations in leading Kyiv clinics, the doctors unequivocally recommended surgical intervention to close the defect. They explained that as the child grows, the load on the heart increases, which could negatively impact the girl's health. The surgery itself is free, but the intracardiac implant used to close the defect is an unaffordable sum for a family of internally displaced persons from the ATO zone. With the help of the “Rozvytok Ukrainy” foundation, which transferred a grant of 50 000 UAH to our fund for Anastasiia Dolynia, half of the money needed for the implant had already been raised. However, another 43 265 UAH still needed to be collected. Since the family found itself in a difficult situation, they could not raise the funds for the intracardiac implant for Nastunya on their own. At the Amosov National Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery they were advised to contact the Future Hearts charitable foundation; the girl's mother reached out to our foundation and explained the challenging material circumstances in their family.

Until the summer of 2014 the family lived in Donetsk, but with the start of the ATO the family was forced to move to the Dnipropetrovsk region and rent an apartment. They also have another daughter – Sofiika. Their mother is on maternity leave caring for the younger child. Because Nastunya falls ill very often, she cannot attend kindergarten. Consequently, the mother cannot go to work either. The husband was laid off from his job in January 2014 due to the closure of the enterprise and was registered with the employment centre. He began cooperating with that centre in their program and in the autumn of that year he opened a private enterprise for organizing children’s parties, into which all the family’s savings were invested. Unfortunately, because of the events that occurred in the country, the business could not be developed and they were also unable to withdraw any of the equipment. Therefore, now the family lives on a few small orders for children’s parties, as they cannot hold them on a full scale due to a lack of money to purchase all the necessary props.

Nastia loves children very much and really wants to go to kindergarten; she even invented her own virtual garden in her games. The girl has excellent hearing and a great sense of rhythm. Nastunya repeats any melody perfectly, and when someone recites a poem, she flawlessly creates her own version in the same rhythm. Perhaps, right before our eyes, a future famous composer or poetess is growing up…

We could not turn away this wonderful family, and understanding that Nastusia’s operation is urgently needed and that half of the funds were already available, we decided not to delay and immediately asked UBB for help in raising money for an intracardiac implant to help Nastusia together. The project started on 19.05.15. The fundraising was carried out through an online service. Eighty‑nine donors took part in the project and, to the family’s relief, the required amount was collected by the record date of 25.05.15, thanks to all the caring people who could not remain indifferent to Nastusia’s fate.

On 15.06.15 at the Amosov National Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery a successful operation to implant an intracardiac device was performed on Anastasiia Doliniy. Thanks to the intervention, on 19.06.15 the child was discharged from the clinic with a healthy heart. The three‑year‑old Nastusia was very lucky, thanks to all the caring people who responded to the Doliniy family’s need and ensured their child received the life‑saving operation in time. Now the girl will be able to live a full life without knowing any heart pain

Full name: Dolina Anastasiia Maksymivna, 22.08.2012

City: Donetsk

Diagnosis: congenital heart defect – secondary defect of the interatrial septum

All details and documentation are here.