Sude’s Medical Treatment

Dear Friends,

I wanted to start a fund raiser for a friend of mine who lives back in Turkey. We used to work for the same company before.

Life has been very hard on her and her little girl, Sude the last couple of years. And I think that, we all deserve a hand during those hard times.

She recently reached out to me asking for debt to be paid back. She is a very honorable and honest person. I wanted to offer her something better than a debt. I wanted to offer her debt free money coming from the good people who is still interested in doing some good. No matter what the amount is. I'm sure that anything will help her and her little one Sude, who needed and still needs medical help.

Here is her story, with her own words:

"My daughter Sude was born in May 2012. She was diagnosed with Trigonocephaly when she was born. It is a is a congenital condition of premature fusion of the metopic suture leading to a triangular shaped forehead (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigonocephaly). Therefore, it negatively affects the baby's brain development.

Sude weighed 5 lb 1 oz when she was born. Every doctor we took our newborn said that she needed a skull operation. But since her skull needed to be broken and fixed again during the operation, they thought it would be a very risky operation where we could lose her and decided to wait till she was 1 year-old.

Sude's development proceeded very slowly. And then, she started having Epilepsy seizures when she was 5 months old. This meant, we had to take Sude to a specialist (Prof. MD Nur Aydinli) each month with a very expensive visit pay. Thank God, she was able to get the seizures under control with the appropriate treatment. Sude still has to visit Dr. Aydinli every other month.

When Sude turned 1, her doctors changed their mind on the skull operation because of the Epilepsy that occured after their initial decision.

I had to leave my job during this hard times in order to take care of my daughter. Thanks to my boss by the time, I was paid my rights and the unemployment salary for a couple of months. Of course, all the money was spent for Sude's medical treatment.

Apart from the financial aspect, it was psychologically very hard on me. Unfortunately there was nothing that I could do about what was happening to my dear daughter whom I love more than anyone. She was so little and so vulnerable. I never felt more helpless.

I tried to keep calm and comfort her while she was having Epilepsy seizures and her little head was falling as her eyes rolled back. We had countless sleepless nights. Our life still continues, with us leaving home most of the time for a hospital or doctor's visit.

Sude could not talk a word till she turned 2 and a half years old. I knew she could understand me and she was trying to tell things with her eyes but there was no words. For the most part, she was asleep with the drugs she was on. She started crawling, walking, talking mainly doing anything later than the usual time of the same age.

Prof Dr. Aydinli told us that she needed to start special education when she was 18 months old. We took her to a special education place 4 times a week and saw great improvement trying to catch up.

During this phase, both my and my husband's families have been great help financially as well as emotionally. But I was responsible for Sude's care and I couldn't leave her to anyone else.

Sude is now 4 years old and she can talk She is attending a government-paid day care.

Life had, harder plans on us. Last year, both my Mom and Dad had real serious surgeries and both of them nearly died. We all spent big amounts of money for their treatment. Now, they can not financially help us either. I am the only child, which makes things harder.

I started working for additional income. I'm working for both marketing and production of Sefo Raviolis. I am making raviolis for them and trying to sell them. I'm making $134/month for this part time job. (Melis' note: I know it sounds unbelievable but, unfortunately, that's the truth of Turkey folks). I also signed up as a sales representative for LR Health & Beauty which is a company like Amway. So, I'm trying to do my best to make some money within given conditions.

My husband works as a Geography teacher for a private school. He is making $735/month.

With my mom and dad's operations last year, we found ourselves in a very challenging financial situation. On top of our daughter's medical expenses, we had to help my mom and dad's treatment expenses which caused us a lot of debt. We also have a mortgage to pay. So, that is why we are having difficulties with our payments. We need to close our debt, in order not to lose our house and have an eviction."

God forbid, but this can happen to any of us. A medical condition in the family, and another sickness that needs an operation and your whole life changes to a point you might lose your home and struggle a lot more with your finances.

I would appreciate your kind contributions on helping my friend Seda, her husband and their daughter Sude. No amount will be too little. I'm sure anything will help.

I apologize for sending this message to some of yours work e-mails. I didn't have a better contact information. I will share this fund raiser with you just once in order not to bother anyone.

Hope all the good you do comes back to you.

Melis Bal