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2024 year: 2 000 297 ₴
13 years: 58 336 140 ₴

Myroslav’s two dreams





Yet to raise
178 720грн
Myroslav Olhovsky will be saved by a spine operation.

Myroslav Olhovsky, a 13-year-old Kherson native, survived the terrible occupation of his hometown, and together with his mother left for the West of the country, to Lviv. There, the boy developed a severe curvature of the spine rapidly, literally in a few months, which threatens heart and lung failure. Even the legs can fail. Doctors insist on an urgent operation.

Wonderful, native Kherson, where every street is familiar, where close friends remain and a cute house in which the windows were recently blown out by a Russian attack. Several times the family made a desperate attempt to return from evacuation, the last time - in the summer of last year, when they had to surrender their tickets because the Russians committed a terrorist attack: they blew up the Kakhovskaya HPP.

And now it is too dangerous in the city: an enemy projectile flew near the family home, the windows were blown out by the blast wave. Russians shell the city and drop explosives from drones, both adults and children suffer, Myroslav and his mother have to stay in Lviv, in a rented apartment, without the help of the boy's father.

– When we went to school and began to pass the commission, my son was diagnosed with scoliosis, but the disease began to progress in the last year – says Julia Olkhovska, Myroslav's mother. The spine curves before the eyes. And at the same time, in May of this year, Myroslav fell ill with whooping cough, and he coughed hard all these months.

Due to progressive scoliosis, the cough could not be overcome for a long time. The child suffered for almost six months, the disease was so severe that Julia feared for her son's life. The boy had to forget about the former active lifestyle.

– He loves the scooter very much, he loves it very much. And when we arrived in Lviv, he drove it all the time on the street. Now I'm sick, I can't ride a scooter because of back problems. I ask him: go for a walk, but he stopped going outside, became very upset. Because of the disease of the spine, he is very self-absorbed, he thinks and worries about something inside in his own way, says my mother.

At first, Myroslav found friends in Lviv, talked and was happy. But when the rapid curvature of the spine began, he closed in on himself, does not contact his friends, feels lonely. The boy is 13 years old - a time of active growing up with all his adolescent crises, to which illness and forced departure from home have now been added. The family fled Kherson at the end of the occupation. Julia bitterly recalls the first months of the full-scale war:

– We live near the bus station, and the Russian military was on the roofs of neighboring houses opposite our house with weapons, they controlled this place. At first we didn't go outside at all. Around the checkpoint, very scary. Then they started going out to buy products, the prices are crazy, the queues are huge, there are soldiers everywhere. Myroslava had to go for a walk, they looked for a place behind the houses so that less of us would be seen.I had to leave the city when the Russians started threatening that children who would not be sent to Russian schools would be taken away from their parents. This danger forced the family to urgently flee the occupation. First, the Olkhovskis went to Khmelnytskyi, and then to Lviv. They live in a rented apartment, and these are considerable sums. Julia behaves courageously, works hard so that her son has everything he needs. There is no financial help from a father who rarely communicates with his son.

– Once in his early childhood, Myroslav got sick, and I needed money, I called his father, and he told me: if Myroslav lived with me, I would do something for him, but yes, no, recalls Julia.

She admits that after such words she was very disappointed in her ex-husband and now she does not expect help from him.
Myroslav is my mother's great love, joy, pride and greatest anxiety. The guy has inner nobility and hidden vulnerability, he does not tolerate lies and deception, he is honest with others, incredibly kind and caring.

– Nowadays, he can't put any load on his back, nothing heavy, says his mother. And we, for example, go to the store with him, he starts carrying a bag with groceries. As he said: I am a man, I have to help you. I take it from him, he gets angry.

Loads on the back are really extremely dangerous. The angle of inclination of the spine has increased catastrophically in a few months and is 70 degrees. Doctors see the only way out only in an operation to install a metal implant that aligns the spine. The surgical intervention will be carried out in Dnipro, in the City Multidisciplinary Hospital named after Rudneva, in two stages. After the operation, Myroslav will be able to lead a full, healthy lifestyle.

– Now Miroslav has two dreams – says his mother. He really wants to go home. To a completely free and safe Kherson. And of course he dreams of recovery. To be a healthy and happy boy, with the usual childish desires. I hope that you will help him realize at least one of these dreams.

The cost of the equipment needed to treat Myroslav is UAH 180 000. Your every contribution is incredibly important, because there is nothing more valuable than a child's health.

Photo from the family’s personal archive
The author
is Nina Filatova

Dmytro Petrenko, Head of the Orthopedics and Traumatology Department of the Rudnev Mother and Child Center (Dnipro): «Myroslav has idiopathic scoliosis of the thoracic spine of the 4th degree. Recently, the boy's condition has worsened, the deformation of the spine is progressing, pain in the chest and back has increased, and shortness of breath is increasing. Over time, cardiopulmonary failure will progress. It is necessary to immediately carry out surgical treatment of the boy with the use of a metal implant. This method is the most gentle, which allows you to preserve the mobility of the spine. After a period of adaptation and rehabilitation, Myroslav will be able to live a full life, forgetting about his illness».

The supplier of the metal structure-implant issued an invoice for 180 000 UAH.

Dear friends! If you decide to help
Myroslav Olhovsky, don’t be confused by the price of rescue. Any donation from you will be gratefully received. You can send a donation by bank transfer to the Ufund. All the necessary details are available in the fund and on the website. You can use our electronic payment system, make a donation from a bank card or electronic cash, including from abroad using PayPal:ufondhelp@gmail.com. Also, transfer help to Myroslav using the peering payment system by transferring bitcoins to the Fund’s wallet: 1UFondJDKbYMgVhWsyijyvJoWEGWPggNp.