Life. To be continued ...
WITH A STIFF STEP.
Little Bogdan still has a long way to go to recover.
Borispol is known to most Kyivites and guests of the Ukrainian capital as an international airport. But it is also a city with a population of 60,000 people. In the center are high-rise buildings, shops, cafes, banks. But if you walk a little from the final stop of the bus Kyiv - Borispol, the provincial streets with one-story private houses begin.
Bogdan Lavsky, who turned three on February 4, lives with his parents in one of these houses. But this house is not theirs, they are renting it out, which costs more than half of Bogdan’s father’s salary. But there are no other options. In the hinterland of the Chernihiv region, where the boy’s parents come from, they did not find a job in the specialty, and in Borispol it is. They have been living here for ten years. And everything would be fine, if not for the boy’s illness - a year and a half ago at the National Children’s Specialized Hospital OHMATDET Bogdan was diagnosed with "cerebral palsy" (cerebral palsy).
Marina, Bogdan’s mother, meets me at the gate. And in the house - Bogdan himself, a mobile boy, unlike, at first glance, a child with cerebral palsy. But when you look closely, you notice that Bogdan walks only on his toes - he does not lean on his whole foot. I remember school physical education classes, where there was such an exercise - to get on your socks and walk around the perimeter of the gym. One or two circles - and you get tired. And he just walks. Son, says Marina, and dances to music on his socks.
Bogdan loves music very much, as well as books that his mother reads to him. He himself does not yet know how to read and speaks only a few words. But he learned to eat and drink on his own. But he can’t get dressed without outside help yet.
Doctors say the main thing is not to stop there. Bogdan is making progress in overcoming the disease, and if progress continues, the boy will go to kindergarten and then to school.
Marina is sure that if she stops the treatment and pauses, her son’s condition will worsen. That is why she dedicates all her time to Bogdan. Only dad works in the family. At first it seemed to Marina that the child was developing normally. The first doubts arose when Bogdan, unlike other children his age, did not even try to sit down. The district clinic said that the boy had increased muscle tone and advised to do a massage. Then Marina took her son to the Kiev Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics. There, too, found increased tone and prescribed homeopathic remedies. But neither medication nor regular massage courses helped the boy.
And when Bogdan was one and a half years old, his parents went with him to Kyiv, to the OHMATDET clinic. There they heard: a diagnosis of cerebral palsy.
"It was so scary!" I couldn’t leave for a long time, I didn’t know what to do and where to run for help, - Marina recalls. - But then I took myself in hand, my husband was very supportive of me, we began to work intensively with Bogdan.
Marina lists local and out-of-town medical facilities and rehabilitation centers where her son was treated. It turns out a long list. Trips to the International Rehabilitation Clinic in Truskavets proved to be the most effective. After the first course of treatment, the baby began to crawl on all fours, instead of squatting, as before. After the second - began to sit down on their own and rise more confidently. After the third year he started walking on his toes.
But all this is not cheap - you have to pay for treatment, rent a house in Truskavets, eat, buy train tickets. The first three courses had enough savings. Outpatient treatment in the fourth year was paid for by the Main Department of Social Protection, where Marina applied. And for the fifth year, which will begin in March, the money was raised by you, Ufond readers. Thank you all very much!
Doctors promise that in time Bogdan will stand and walk confidently, his coordination will improve. But for this you need to be treated at a clinic in Truskavets four times a year. And in the periods between trips - to do massage and to be engaged in medical physical training. All this costs a lot of money, unaffordable for the modest budget of the Lavsky family. Therefore it is necessary to save on everything. Parents use all the opportunities of free treatment in Borispol. For example, Bogdan was recently admitted to a speech therapist and psychologist at a local rehabilitation center.
Marina sees me off to the gate. Then begins the city, the name of which is associated with long journeys. And she believes that Bogdan once walked firmly and confidently on the streets not only of his native Borispol.
The column is led by Sergei Semenov
Photo by Roman Betsenko