The only leukemia or blood cancer treatment center in Estonia is at Tallinn Children’s hospital. Currently they have 4 private units and 3 semi-private units. To improve patient care, the hospital needs 6 private units. The objective is to raise 150,000 euros and to date, 57,000 euros have been donated.
For several weeks, Elina and her 2 year old son Mihkel, live in a private room in the blood cancer treatment center. Occassionally, 4 year old brother Kaspar also joins them for treatment. On February 1st ERR television news interviewed the family and Elina Jürjen explained why privacy is important for families of children suffering from leukemia. The family has 3 children. The eldest Joosep is healthy and attends school, but his younger brothers are often in the hospital. Kaspar was diagnosed with leukemia in June 2015 and Mihkel in May 2016. Today neither of them have sufficient white blood cells. Every bacteria, germ or virus needs to be avoided, as even a cold is dangerous.
“Initially Kaspar suffered from many infections, which delayed treatments. Following chemotherapy, his white blood cell count was very low, even a cold could put him in the hospital. While normally healthy children suffer a cold for about a week, he developed a fever and to overcome the cold, he required isolation in a private unit for almost a month.” said his mother Elina.
Leukemia is curable today, but treatments are expensive and last from 6 months to 4 years. Elina explained, „When we bring Mihkel here, we know it will take 3-4 weeks. One week for treatment, followed by up to 3 weeks while his body generates new white blood cells.“ Considering that leukemia therapy lasts 2 and a half years, Kaspar’s treatments will end in December next year. After that he will receive medications at home and only return to the hospital for half a day every 2 months. Mihkel has been treated for 6 months and the hardest period should be over in February. He will need treatments for the next 2 years. His mother is very hopeful as Mihkel was diagnosed quickly and commenced treatments thereafter. As his older brother was undergoing chemotherapy, doctors reluctantly diagnosed Mihkel as they could not believe that one family would have two seriously ill children at the same time.
„I can see that my youngest son tolerates treatments better than Kaspar, who suffered tremendously in the beginning. There is hope for a complete recovery, as the therapy is hard, but successful.“
Donations may be made to EERO, who will issue a tax receipt and collects the money for the Tallinn Children’s hospital. You may donate either by transfering funds or by cheque.
You can view the ERR interview with Elina Jurjen from February 1st at
http://menu.err.ee/v/uudised/e...
We wish both children a complete recovery!
