Last news: 

2 february 2012

The rehabilitation is over. Tonight Georgy and his parents have landed in Moscow.

26 january 2012

Georgy is getting ready for discharge from rehabilitation clinic. In the next few days he will get final MRT and other check-ups, and parents will record rehab exercises on video, in order to continue them in Moscow. On the evening February 2nd Georgy and his parents will land in Moscow.

23 january 2012

We thank you Russian charity organization fund RusFond-Pomosh for participation in covering Georgy rehabilitation bill. The transfer is received by the clinic. Thank you very much for your helping hand. Here is more about the fund actions (only in Russian)

19  january 2012

Georgy walks freely! To help leg muscles to learn proper positions, Georgy got an orthese  - a rigid shoe keeping right angle of the feet. He continues with speech therapy (thank you russian volunteers who keep coming to translate!), erghotherapy, swimming lessons.  Today was first session of musical therapy, where child learns to play various instruments. Georgy’s return to Moscow is just two weeks away. 

8  january 2012

Georgy learns how to walk. He is now capable to get down from a bed, and run around with a little support. He speaks first syllables and distinguishes when someone around speaks Russian.

30 december 2011

Rehabilitation goes as planned: Georgy receives speech therapies, swimming lessons, learns to walk, and dozens of others. Special thanks to volunteers from Dusseldorf who brings him Russian books and assists during speech therapy sessions.

25 december 2011

Third day in rehab clinic. Every morning Georgy gets a therapy plan, covering from 8 to 17h, minute by minute: speech therapy, ergotherapy (hands movements), swimming, electrotherapy, etc.  The clinic is trying to find a Russian interpreter who will assist during the speech lessons. The Christian community of Dusseldorf is also looking for one.

22 december 2011. Georgy is discharged from operation clinic. Tomorrow morning he will move to rehabilitation clinic near Dusseldorf, to learn to walk, speak, and use the right hand. If he remains seizure-free, he should start speaking within 3-6 months.

18 december 2011. Georgy makes his first steps.

15 december 2011. Georgy is returning home for few hours a day. He will start physiotherapy course tomorrow.

13 december 2011. Georgy is back to child clinic (after being in Intensive Unit). He is going out to the city in a baby-carriage, and expected to be discharged from Mara and move to rehabilitation clinic on December 22.

12 december 2011. All catheters are removed now. Late afternoon EEG was recorded, but no conclusions are known so far.

11 december 2011. Today is a great day - for the first time Georgy sit down, and for the first time he laughed.

9 december 2011. Georgy is recovering, still taking fluid-removing medications. We start to arrange next step - his admission to Meerbush rehabilitation center, after he is discharged from Mara clinic, presumably end of next week. 

8 december 2011. Georgy’s MRT shows  excessive accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the left hemisphere, where the surgery took place. To be on the safe side doctors give him medication removing the liquid, and for that time placed Georgy back to intensive care.

6 december 2011. Georgy is back to normal clinic (non-intensive). He tries to watch TV, eats sausages, yogurts, and seats on the parents’ lap. The doctors says that all goes as planned.

5 december 2011. Post-surgery swelling going down, Georgy eats liquid food. Tonight the last catheter was removed, so that Georgy could keep seating and eat normally.

4 december 2011. Georgy drinks from pipette (he has received only intravenous nutrition before) and tries to eat bread.

3 december 2011. Georgy opens his eyes, focuses on parents moves, and moves himself.  

2 december 2011. Georgy was transferred to the child hospital, where he will recover during the next week. He is still under sleeping medication, expected to wake up within next few hours.

1 december 2011. The surgery is made by Dr. Pannek, and passed without any complications!  Georgy is now in Intensive Care Unit,  we visited him few minutes ago. He is sleeping under medication, but accidentally opens his eyes and moves in the sleep.

Last donations

Sberbank  29.12.2011 21:27   5’000,00 RUB Nat.Chesnokova

PayPal    10.12.2011 11:18        100 CHF Anton Esaev

Sberbank  08.12.2011 13:27   5’000,00 RUB card 4276....0505

PayPal    05.12.2011 20:36        100 CHF Dmitry Kuzmin

PayPal    02.12.2011 18:15        100 CHF Oleg Yazyev

Sberbank  29.11.2011 19:32      5’000 RUB card 4276....3411

Yandex    23.11.2011 13:35      1’500 RUR via MosKredBank

transfer  14.11.2011 13:54   2’000,00 CHF Swiss Epilepsy Center

PayPal    10.11.2011 13:58         50 CHF Vl.Borisova

Sberbank  09.11.2011 17:40   3 000,00 RUB card 4276...0618

Sberbank  09.11.2011 15:26  66’150,00 RUB Valentina Makarova

transfer  22.10.2011 11:53   5 000,00 EUR Ein Herz für Kinder

Sberbank  21.10.2011 19:21      47,10 EUR OSB 79700182

Sberbank  27.09.2011 17:07      70,00 EUR OSB 15690031

PayPal    08.09.2011 14:46      80,00 CHF Dmitry Kuzmin

Sberbank  22.08.2011 14:11     235,00 EUR no name

Yandex    23.08.2011 14:05      11,78 EUR via MosKredBank

The surgery plan

25th October: Family arrives to Germany and stay in an apartment in Bielefeld. Beginning of medication withdrawal, under control of Dr.Polster.

10th November: End of medication withdrawal. Check if anything gets complicated.

28th November: Admission to Mara clinic

1st December: Surgery, roughly from 8am to 3pm

1st December, evening: post surgical admission to Childrens Intensive Care Unit - Childrens Hospital

7th December Georgy will either stay in Intensive Care Unit for four days longer or switch to another building

12th December End of admission. Transfer to rehabilitation center.

15-20 January End of rehabilitation. Georgy flies back to Moscow.

The story of Georgy

Who would have thought that the joy at the birth of our Georgy on 9 July 2007 would be replaced with grief in 2 years.  Epilepsy was revealed in an absolutely healthy child.  The illness has not receded after a year of stay in hospitals of the city and the use of all appropriate national and imported medications. The progressive deviations in mental development indicate that the time works against our Georgy. 

During the examination of our child at the Swiss Epilepsy Centre (Zurich)  the specialists diagnosed focal cortical dysplasia.

We were offered a surgical intervention with the subsequent restoration. Unfortunately, it may be done only in Europe or America. Doctors say that it is a good chance of restoration in development and a normal mode of life.

Salvage of Georgy includes three steps:

1. A preliminary instrumental examination in the Swiss Epilepsy Centre (Zurich) with the purpose of understanding scale of the disease and choosing the specialized clinic for a surgery.

This step was passed in December 2010. The cost of €25,000 fully paid by the parents. The Mara clinic in Germany was recommended for the operation. The Swiss doctors contacted the clinic and the clinic has agreed to take Georgy for treatment.

2.Pre-surgery examination at the Mara clinic. It is carried out by the surgeons who will perform the operation so that to establish accurately the borders of dysplasia.

This step took place on September 1-8, 2011. This is the clinic bill for €10,5000. It is what we successfully raised in July-September 2011 with this page. Thank you everyone for your efforts and participation! Here>> is the payment confirmation from Mara clinic.

On the 9th September the doctors pronounced their opinion about further steps. The news is actually better than we expected.

1. The main objective of this week-long examination was to establish the scale of dysplasia in the left hemisphere of George’s brain and understand how the changes affected the right hemisphere. If there were abnormal changes in the right half the operation will not be worthwhile. The fresh EEG and MRI recorded in Mara clinic indicated that the right half of the brain is clean. Moreover, compared with the November 2010 record made in Zurich, the right hemisphere shows signs of development. This means that Georgy’s brain is evolving, but the wrong signals from epilepsy-affected area suppressed the rest and do not give this development to be manifested in the child's behavior.
   

2. 
   

3. Doctors advised the surgery which will isolate the malfunctioning segment on the left, giving the rest of the brain a chance to recover.  Complications of surgery may include malfunctioning of the right half of the body (in human beings left half of the brain controls right side of the body, and vice versa), such as incomplete right hand movement or the limitations of the right eyesight. As for any surgery all consequences cannot be predicted, however doctors and parents agreed that this risk is justified.
   

4. 
   

 
3.The brain surgery in the Mara clinic. This is what we are preparing for. The surgery will take place on December 1, if the clinic bill is paid.  

Your help can save this child. 

We will truly appreciate your aid!

More details

Diagnosis:  Pharmacoresistant symptomatic epilepsy. Global disorder of development with loss of speech and deterioration of cognitive abilities.

The parents are telling:
Georgy is the second, desired, planned child in the family. He was born on July 09, 2007 in Moscow and was, as we thought, absolutely healthy. In accordance with his age he learned to sit, since the age of eight months he began to stand on his legs, at the age of one year he began to walk independently. While growing,  Georgy was a very active, inquisitive, bright kid, he liked to draw, hear when he is read books to, play. By the age of two years our son began to make phrases from words.

In July 2009 a tumor was formed on Georgy’s left hand. During the examinations a decision was made to remove the formation. We began to prepare for the operation but at this time the first signs of the disease appeared in Georgy. First that manifested itself in weeny nods of the head. We came to a neurologist in the polyclinic with this troublesome question. The doctor suggested that the child is frolling. We calmed and went to the hospital for the operation. Everything was all right, we began to prepare for the discharge, but on the last day of our stay in the hospital the first attack occurred which turned over all our life. Georgy was squatting and playing. At some time I noticed that he began to stagger, I called him, he did not respond, then I came up to him and picked him up in my arms, his body straightened and sagged, his eyes rolled, his breathing was not felt, the skin assumed a gray tint. Several minutes later his breathing was restored, and Georgy recovered but remained sluggish, not responding to anything.

That was how we were referred to the department of neurology, and a fearful diagnosis was established - the EPILEPSY.

None of our relatives both from the husband's part and from my part have such diseases.

Day by day attacks of epilepsy became more and more frequent, their number reached 10 and more series a day. Doctors tried to select a medicine, but the difficulty was that all medicines are used for a long time and the effect was minimal. Some medicines caused side effects.

During the year of stay in different hospitals of the city and a great number of medicines managed to stop a sharp worsening of the condition, but unfortunately attacks persisted. During this period we tried all medicines manufactured in Russia and the certified imported medicines which are appropriate for our type of attacks.  In accordance with the doctors' recommendation Georgy underwent 2 sessions of MRI of the brain. The results of the study have showed nothing. The video EEG monitoring shows an epileptic activity, but cannot reveal the origin of the attacks.

 

The disease does not recede but progresses. In summer 2010 Georgy developed deviations in the mental development: his speech began to disappear (now he cannot utter a word).  He lost interests towards once favorite games, books, he stopped to say that he wants to the toilet. 

We understood that the time works against us and therefore we began to search for other variants of treatment. Our acquaintances told us about the clinic which is situated in Switzerland (The Swiss Epilepsy Centre, 8008 Zurich.). We corresponded with them for along time, and in response they invited us for an examination.

During two weeks spent in Switzerland a number of pre-surgical examinations was performed: repeated intensive video EEG monitoring and MRI of the brain. The Swiss doctors saw that the Moscow doctors could not see. The EEG picture was almost similar in all cases and did not allow to reveal location of the beginning of an attack.  MRI of the brain showed in the frontocentral direction on the left a slight induration of the cortex, related discrete haziness between the gray and white matter. A suspicion arose of a focal cortical dysplasia. It was also proved that drug treatment is useless in our case (medicines help only by 5-7%).

What money is needed for?

We were proposed to undergo step-by-step surgical intervention with the subsequent restoration. Doctors say that this is a chance of restoration in the development (60-70%, and that is very much!), a possibility to return to a normal life, to go to school ...

Now our purpose is to pay bill for the brain surgery in the Mara Clinic in the German town of Bielefeld. Among all possible clinics this is the most appropriate clinic for our operation. Professor Dr. Тilman Polster agreed to perform the surgery on 1st of December 2011.

How much money is required?

The bill for surgery from the Mara Clinic is €24’000. 

Apart of it we need to cover transportation and 2.5 months out-patient stay in Germany: one month prior to surgery (controlled withdrawal of current medication) and 6 weeks after the surgery in a rehabilitation center.

We will truly appreciate your aid in collecting this funds!

How much the parents paid?

All expenses for the first stage examination, namely
22’000 CHF (20.000 €) bill by the Swiss Epilepsy Centre and 1500 € as Moscow-Zurich travel expenses. 

Who will know about my donation?

Georgy, when he will grow up. If you wish we could announce you name on this page - if so, please mention it in the transfer details. Otherwise, it will remain confidential and nobody will know it.

I want to save this kid!  How can I help?

Donate to one of Georgy accounts mentioned on the top of this page.  

This PDF contains all account numbers and instructions for your convenience

If you are in Russia, there is an alternative way: 

Transfer to Georgy’s account in Yandex-Money (Russian online payment system, available only in Russian language).
The account number - 4100 1103 1307 988

Please mention ‘Donation for Georgy’s surgery’ and your name (optionally) in the subject field, if you want to see your name on this page.

How to reach us:

In Europe (Switzerland)

Ivan Orlov +41 79 933 23 62  ivan.orlov@scientificvisual.ch

speak English, French, Russian

In Russia (Georgy’s parents)

Mme Irina Sidorina / M. Vasiliy Sidorin

+7 925 051 99 33  / sidorin27@mail.ru

speak Russian

Your help is very highly appreciated!

Georgy learns to walk. Rehabilitation clinic, Meerbush, Jan  2012

Georgy, parents and Dr. Tilman Polster (on the right) in Mara clinic,  Germany.

February 2, 2012
Surgery is covered
Rehabilitation is covered
Donation campaign is over

Write few words to Georgy and his Mum in Germany

where Georgy gets through post-surgery therapies.

The donation campaign is over. Russian company Gazprom and Russian charity RusFond have agreed to contribute to Georgy’s surgery and rehabilitation correspondingly. The payments have not yet arrived to clinics, but we find it fair in these circumstances to postpone the donation campaign.  We will keep you informed about the development.

The news about Georgy will be further updated here. We keep bank accounts on the right for whose who want to support the family for their non-surgery expenses - flight back home, physiotherapy in Moscow, and returning Georgy to normal life.