Hello!
Our names are Yevhenii and Kateryna Dankov, we are the parents of our first and only daughter Nicole.
Until she was two she had never once been ill. But in March 2021 the world turned upside down for us. It all began with the commonplace symptoms of a cold; then, after 3 weeks of unsuccessful treatment, on 29 March Nicole was taken into intensive care in a grave condition with a diagnosis of bacterial pneumonia. Her heart was displaced to the right and her lungs were filled with pus.
The doctors suspected several additional diagnoses besides bacterial pneumonia: a diaphragmatic hernia, a cyst of the lung. But all these suspicions were ruled out by numerous tests and examinations.
After all the resuscitation measures, a week in intensive care and the following two weeks in the septic surgery department of the regional children's hospital, our girl quickly began to recover. That was the first time our little one was on the edge, but she came through the trial confidently.
On 23 April we were discharged from the clinic with positive progress. Then on 5 May we came to the clinic for a follow-up X-ray and were shocked by the news that the left lung could not be seen at all and the heart was considerably displaced to the right. The result – intensive care again, drainage of the lungs again, when Nicole's scars from the previous drains had only just healed. For a little girl it was yet another shock, stress and trial.
On 11 May, after the CT results, we learnt that the left lung was totally collapsed by a mass measuring 138x84x156 mm. The CT conclusion: pleuropulmonary blastoma? The first suspicion of the most terrible thing there can be – cancer.
Nicole's condition grew worse every day, it became harder and harder for her to breathe. We had to save her urgently.
On 20 May Nicole was successfully operated on at the Cancer Institute in Kyiv. As the child's condition was critical, the operation was a forced measure and the only chance of life. At two and a half years old our little girl had been through numerous painful medical procedures, countless X-rays and anaesthetics, and finally – the most complex surgical operation with colossal risks to life, in the course of which a giant (25 cm) tumour was removed from her lungs.
Before the operation Nicole had been breathing with one lung for about a month; the tumour filled the whole chest, and it is hard even to imagine how difficult, painful and hard it was for her to cope with such pressure. It was expected that amputation of the lung would be unavoidable but, fortunately, the lung was saved. The child's condition was further complicated by a considerable electrical burn of the buttock, which arose during the operation for reasons that are unclear and which will take two months to heal.
A month passed after the operation, the test results came, and we received confirmation of our worst fears – the tumour that had been removed proved malignant. Nicole was given a terrible diagnosis: pleuropulmonary blastoma (type III). By that time we had already begun the first block of chemotherapy, without waiting for the tests, without knowing the exact diagnosis.
Weakened and not yet recovered, our girl bore the first block of chemotherapy bravely, without a blood transfusion and without any great loss of appetite, which cannot be said of her beautiful hair, which fell out almost at once.
Nicole's mental and emotional state has suffered badly after everything she has been through. She often cries and frets, the burn troubles her all the time. At night the child wakes screaming, afraid that people in white coats will come and hurt her again.
Our hearts contract with pain as we look at our child, realising and understanding how she suffers and how much still lies ahead of her. The fight for life ahead will be hard and long.
To our great sorrow, pleuropulmonary blastoma is an extremely rare cancer. At the time a medical paper was written in 2017, the International Pleuropulmonary Blastoma Registry had recorded only 350 confirmed cases of this rare disease in the whole world over the entire period of observation.
Anywhere in the world it is very hard to find specialists who have met such a diagnosis. Fortunately for us, we found the Sant Joan de Deu hospital in Spain, which specialises in very rare childhood cancers and in the most difficult patients. This medical institution has successful experience of treating this rare disease. All of the few patients with a diagnosis of pleuropulmonary blastoma were successfully cured by the scientific director of the children's oncology department of this hospital.
They are ready to help us, but for that we need financial support that is beyond our family's means, to travel abroad for treatment.
We ask everyone with a big sincere heart who cares to help save our girl and give her a chance of a healthy and happy life.
We ask for help from everyone who can help us in such a hard situation.
Sincerely, Nicole's parents.
For the ways you can help, see here.
