The diagnosis Vanya received immediately after his birth left his parents in shock, and at they were even at a loss at first, but then they pulled themselves together and began fighting for the health of their long-awaited baby.

From a letter from Vanya Kushnerik's mother:

When my and husband and I found out that we were having a baby — we were very happy. We immediately started thinking about whether we wanted a boy or a girl, but we realized that wasn't the most important thing, and we simply started picking names for a boy, and a girl.

When we were told at our second scheduled ultrasound that we were having a son, — we already had a name. And we immediately started calling our little one by his name: «Vanechka». We didn't tell anyone about the name until the birth.

The entire nine months of pregnancy were uneventful. I only had a cold in the first trimester, but I didn't pay much attention to it. In February (by

24  I was already in the maternity hospital), at  I started having contractions, which I suffered through all night. The next morning, the doctor on duty examined me, and  I heard the magic words: «You'll give birth. In the delivery room».

And here I am in the delivery room, all the doctors are around me. I gave birth, the baby is crying, the doctors are whispering, no one says anything to me, they don't show me the baby. I don't understand something like, minutes have passed 5 or so it seemed to me then.

The doctor said: «Show the baby to the mother». I look, he is all blue, I lower my eyes and there's silence all around and I don't understand what's wrong with my baby. And whose fault is it? Vanya was taken to the intensive care unit. They immediately gave us a nickname: «fat».

An hour later 3-4 the regional surgeon arrived and explained to everyone (the doctors and us) that the child has bladder exstrophy and epispadias.

You don't understand how to react when children are born. Usually, there's joy and happiness, but here there's shock and panic. You don't know what will happen next.

I saw Vanya in the evening. And on I held him in my arms on the second day.

He seemed to be a normal baby, but no, something was wrong with him. like that.

Every three hours I went to the intensive care unit to feed him. Ten days passed. 7 We were discharged home in March. We didn't let anyone near the baby, because we understood that he was   special to us. In

1,5 months went by and on 12 April we went to Kyiv for the first time. The doctor said then that it was still too early for the operation. The next appointment was set for 12 August. At that time he had a runny nose from his first teeth, and the doctor did not even examine him. So we dropped that option. We began looking for something better. All parents want only the best for their children, and we are no exception. And we found it.

Our surgery was scheduled for 20 March 2014 in Serbia. Rados Djinovic is a very good specialist. The surgery cost 10 000 euro. We managed to raise money ourselves for tickets and accommodation in Serbia for a month. We hope that he will do everything in one time and will not need another surgery.

We ask you to help us and our child. Vanya is a very good, smart little boy. And he has the right to be healthy.