Together with donors of Gift of Life you helped to pay for few Defitelio courses. It costed more than almost $57 thousand USD.
Seven-year-old Kamil has a very rare illness called thalassemia, which interferes with the production of haemoglobin. He was diagnosed with it when he was only a year old. Tragically, Kamil has been forced to spend nearly his entire childhood in hospital, at the Dmitry Rogachev Centre for Pediatric Hematology. Though the Centre is nothing like an ordinary hospital, the charming, bright and cheerful Kamil hasn't had the chance have fun or go to kindergarten or school—in other words, to do any of the things that kids his age should.
Now, in order to get better, Kamil needs a bone marrow transplant. A donor has already been found and the transplant is due to take place very soon. Until then, his illness has to be kept at bay using a plethora of medicines and repeated blood transfusions from the donor. But the constant transfusions come with a serious complication, creating an excess of iron which gets deposited in various organs and tissues and interferes with their work. This is especially bad for the liver and the heart. In order to help his liver work properly, Kamil can take the highly effective modern medicine “Defitelio”.
It isn’t the first time that you helped to buy this medication. Defitelio is the only treatment, that helps patients to fight veno-occlusive hepatic disease (VOD) occurred after bone marrow transplant (BMT). Podari.Life buys Defitelio for Russian hospitals, because it is not available for medical use in Russia and therefore cannot be provided by medical insurance companies.
VOD is one of the most frequently encountered serious complications after bone marrow transplant. It is a life-threatening complication that had not been known in medicine until BMT treatment emerged. In this syndrome, small hepatic vessels' cells are damaged by toxic metabolites generated during the preparation to BMT (conditioning).
There are two factors that put patients at risk of VOD. First is conditioning regimen with Busulfan, Cyclophosphan, Melphalan or total body irradiation; second is preexisting hepatic damage occurred due to hepatitis or iron overload caused by frequent blood transfusions. While dangerous conditioning regimens could be avoided, risky preexisting factors still have to be dealt with. Approximately, 1-2 percent of patients undergoing BMT develop VOD and need to start receiving Defitelio immediately. That is why it is so important to have a permanent stock of Defitelio in every BMT-department.
Donating money for Defitelio for pediatric hospitals you help children to fight dangerous complications of cancer treatment.