Gift of SIGHT

This is a story of Veronica, a 3 years old girl that lost her sight when she was just 3 weeks old, because of doctor’s negligence. Her parents and grandparents have sold most of their belongings to raise money for Veronica’s operations, she had eight so far. Unfortunately, not all were successful until they found the right clinic. The family was about to sell the house where they all live to cover the next operation, when I called to congratulate my Godmother with her 65 birthday, she is Veronica’s grandmother. I’ve sent the money to cover this operation and rehabilitation, but several more operations are needed and what I can do is not enough, we need your help.

Please bear with me for a bit of a background on Veronica’s illness and where she lives. At the age of 1.5 months, she went through an anti-inflammatory therapy and retina cryocautery of both eyes. There were complications, as result she was diagnosed with retinopathy of prematurity stage 5 in both eyes, and early degeneration of the cornea of the left eye. When Veronica was 5 month old, her mother found a clinic in Saint Petersburg (Russia) where they performed six operations slowly improving her condition. Finally, after the last operation the left eye retina straightened and rooted. Veronica began to see vague silhouettes with the left eye. Next step is cautious rehabilitation of the left eye and the same kind of operation on the right eye. She has a long way to go to full recovery but the results are astonishing and give real hope to the whole family.

Even in best of times, the country where Veronica was born was not very accommodating for people with disabilities and now Ukraine is being torn apart by war. There is no infrastructure for people with disabilities, no incentives to hire them, no special assistance in schools or financial assistance. Any plans to fix that were shattered and unfortunately will not become a government priority any time soon. By regaining her sight, Veronica will not only be able to see, she will be able to be a part of the society.

While Veronica goes through the operations she and her mother have to live in Saint Petersburg because the intervals between operation varies and can be anything from three to six month. Depending on the success of each operation and recovery time, the doctors determine when to schedule the next one. The ninth operation is taking place August 31, she is being prepared for it now.

As it stands now they are planning the next operation to take place in there month, November/December. Full payment must be made before they start preparing Veronica for the operation. The price for each operation varies depending on the progress made in the last operation and during recovery period, approximately $5,000 USD plus cost of rehabilitation and living is another $1,000 USD. I hope to raise $24,000 USD to cover the next four operations. I will be providing updates and reports on spending. Because of the sanctions against Russia and economic issues in Ukraine (PayPal does not work there), I will be using my Canadian account opened specially for Veronica to send her money. I will provide a copy of transfers, they will be made either directly to their account or by Western Union.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.