Viola Babenko

Viola's story

It all started about a year and a half ago, in March 2022, when Viola's back began to ache under her shoulder blade. At first she, a fan of a healthy lifestyle and sports, didn't pay attention to it, but then the pain began to increase.

Viola went to a neurologist, but nothing was detected there. Blood tests and cancer markers were normal. No one referred her for a CT scan or offered to take scans. The doctors assumed it was a bone disease. And they prescribed physical therapy.

Now Viola herself does not understand how she managed to endure the intensive sessions with the physiotherapist. It was hard for her, everything hurt, especially her chest. And in fact, as it turned out later, in her case these sessions only did harm.

But at that time no one could give an answer to the question "what to do?". And Viola and her husband started to look for different specialists themselves, to whom she went for money and without a referral, in order to identify the cause of the pain.

Among other things, she visited a hematologist, where she underwent a puncture and, after checking the tests, was informed that nothing bad was found in the blood. "Go ahead and drink champagne, everything is normal with the blood," the doctor said. "And how can I get rid of the pains?" - Viola asked. "That's not my profile," the doctor cut off.

The family doctor never sent her for a CT scan or special tests because she decided there was no reason to. All of this went on for a long time, and last summer the situation became quite dire. "I just got depressed," Viola recalls. - I didn't want anything anymore, I couldn't do anything and I didn't believe in anything." But her loved ones did not let her give up.

In November-December came the crisis. "I couldn't do anything, it was hard to stand and lie down, I couldn't wash myself. But I still didn't have a diagnosis," Viola recalls.

Finally, the kinesiologist to whom she went in desperation for a consultation, after examining her, immediately said that it was not neuralgia. And the pain was not related to her back. It was on his recommendation that she went herself to do scans of the spine and chest.

And the algologist doctor at the 1st City Hospital, to whom Viola went in the hope of relieving her pain, literally took her under her care and advised her to be examined at the tuberculosis clinic in Sauriesi, where she underwent a biopsy and bronchoscopy. Only then did Viola get a diagnosis. However, she waited a month for the results.

It wasn't until late December 2022 that the shocking answer came: adenocarcenoma. Viola still has a hard time remembering when the doctor called her and said: "Hold on, that's it. Nothing will help." And the family doctor, according to Viola, told her over the phone how many people die with this diagnosis, and you just have to accept the situation. There's virtually no chance."

What to do about it next, Viola had no idea. At the beginning of January, the consilium of doctors sent her a message that she had an appointment for a consultation at the Cancer Center in a month.

She could not wait for a consultation when every day is expensive. Friends and relatives got involved. They contacted Israel's Ikhilov Clinic and there, after studying Viola's diagnosis, they told her - come! "I spoke to the doctor via video link," says Viola. - And they told me: why are you crying? This is treatable. Don't worry, you have to fight. It was a turning point.

On January 8, Viola and her husband Vadim flew to Israel, where she underwent a complex molecular analysis. They stayed in Israel for almost a month. In the Ichilov clinic, based on the tests, Viola was diagnosed with a gene mutation. And they were able to accurately select a drug that helps exactly in her case - Enhertu. "It's not just chemistry. It's two in one," Viola explains. - Biology with chemistry. It's a new generation drug, we don't have such a drug in Latvia.

It turned out that the drug suits her perfectly. It had to be ordered specially, and Latvian doctors agreed to administer the therapy here according to the Israeli protocol. It must be administered every three weeks.

Already in January she underwent the first chemotherapy with the prescribed drug. After the third course Viola had a PET-analysis (positron-electron tomography). And the doctors could not believe their eyes: the inflammation of the lymph nodes had decreased by 30 percent. The disease began to slowly recede.

Viola is already feeling much better. She will have to undergo many chemotherapy sessions to defeat the tumor finally and consolidate the results, Doctors say that the drug is needed regularly to maintain life. The cost of one chemo session is 5800 euros.

There is no such money in the family. Everything possible has already been spent to pay for the trip to Israel, consultations at the Ikhilov clinic and expensive examinations. The family paid for the first courses of chemotherapy and medicines themselves, they collected everything they could. Now Viola needs help.

We must admit that if at least a CT scan of her spine had been done in September, when she started to complain about the vicious circle, her treatment would have started much earlier and would have been easier. The situation would not have been neglected to such a degree.

But the good news is that the medication is working. There's hope. And Viola herself has revived and is living a full life, walking with her dog Alma. She has a wonderful family - husband Vadim, with whom they have been together for 35 years, two children and two beloved 4-year-old grandchildren.

For one course of chemotherapy, which takes place every three weeks, 5800 euros are needed. Such a course is needed for at least 2024 /2025. The amount to be raised now is 100,000 euros. But this is the price of life. We really hope that after 2025 the government will take an action and make this therapy compensation