# Mirza, come back home!

Анна Сергеевна Егорова

The original text in Russian is published here (http://world.lib.ru/editors/e/egorowa_a_s/mirza.shtml) and in the "Argumenty i Fakty: Zdorovye" newspaper (http://aif.ru/online/health/504/02_01).Sorry in advance for any mistakes in the translation. Special thanks for the help in translation to Maria.

MIRZA, COME BACK HOME!


Mirza Magomedov is treated for leukemia in Russian State Children's Hospital in Moscow (RDKB -- Rossijskaya Detskaya Klinicheskaya Bol'nitsa). He needs several thousand dollars to be saved from a fungus infection.       Little Diana is six. She lives in Makhatchkala with her grandparents and is looking forward to seeing her younger brother again. They will draw, walk and sing songs together. Then Diana will go to school, and Mirza will meet her after school every day. And when he is six, they will go to school together.


WE SHALL OVERCOME...


These are just the girl's dreams. Her little brother can't walk. And he may never be six. Mirza is at hospital in Moscow. His diagnosis is terrible - leukemia.       Mirza had a difficult birth: the newborn was badly injured. "If he survives, he will still have a hard mental disability", -- that was the doctors' verdict.       Mirza and his mother stayed in Makhatchkala hospitals for nearly two years. Despite all the terrible forecasts the boy began speaking and walking when he was eight months old. Now being three years old Mirza knows many more words than children of his age. "God granted him for his sufferings", says Elmira, Mirza's mother.       It seemed like all troubles were gone. At that moment Mirza felt bad, and his blood analyses decreased rapidly.       "When he was diagnozed with leukemia, we thought we wouldn't bear that", says Elmira. "We've just begun to live! Besides, the doctor in Makhatchkala told us Mirza's got only one month left. Can you imagine the way we all felt?"       In Makhatchkala, the type of leukemia Mirza had was never treated. The only chance for Mirza was to go to Moscow, to the Russian best children hospital. The Magomedovs family never had much money. They had to borrow $2000 for travelling by train and for the first period in Moscow. Mirza was to undergo a long and expensive treatment.       And so, they left their home city with little Mirza, having left their six-year-old daughter Diana under the care of Grandparents.       Three months have already passed. Mirza has received two blocks of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is a kind of treatment assigned for killing cancer cells in blood. But at the same time it kills the blood cells - platelets which prevent bleeding, and leucocytes which prevent infections. After chemotherapy the patient doesn't have his own leucocytes and any bacterium or fungus become lethal.       Little weak baby Mirza didn't bear the second chemotherapy. His liver was infected with fungi.       Because of the infection, Mirza has been having fever for almost a month now. He constantly suffers pain, and since he almost abandoned eating for a month, he began losing a kilo of weight daily. He is always groaning, can hardly sit and is constantly exhausted.       Recently one of the doctors gave Mirza a toy set: a plate, a cup, a spoon and a fork. "He likes them so much that he takes it to bed with him", smiles Elmira.       When Mirza feels better, he draws and plays with his roommate at the ward - little Daniel. He takes care of his friend and even tries to feed him. He likes to sing and often sings his favourite songs from cartoons. But he hasn't got his sister by his side to sing together...       "Smile, Mirza!" asks Elmira.          It's hard for Mirza to smile. "He got more injections in his life, than had days to live", -- says Elmira bitterly. And then, with affected cheerfulness she talks to Mirza: "Listen, Mirza, don't be scared of these fungi! It's a piece of cake for us to deal with them, isn't it? We'll bear everything together! Just listen, we'll get rid of them soon and go home. Right?"       Mirza's smile is faint.


KEEP ON GOING...


When a fungus infection occurs, the patient can't be treated with chemotherapy. The fungi must be killed first. A very expensive drug Ambisome is necessary, as it is the only effective medicine with this kind of infection.       Children having leukemia are treated free by the state. But free medicine paid by the budget aren't always availiable at the hospital... Leukemia treatment requires huge money. Even in the United States patients with such a diagnosis seek charity donations. Let alone Russia...       If the fungi infection occurs, there's no budget money to fight it. Those fungi-fighting medicine that are effective cost a great deal. And that's why the only hope is to rely on support and donations from other people.       Each package of Ambizome is $300. To survive, Mirza needs a package a day over 30-40 days. Thanks to assistance of the charity group of the hospital the doctors managed to buy 10 packages. But they need another $6000 to buy the necessary amount.       The Magomedovs have never had such big money. And there is nowhere to go for help. Russian sponsors are often prejudiced against people from Dagestan.       The funds are to be collected urgently. In fact the most important thing is to keep on going on the course of chemotherapy. If the following block of it won't be started in time, then cancer cells nurture again and it may be too late to fight them.       And here, in large and alien Moscow, Mirza's dad Michael is not able to find a job. All he can do is visit his baby once a week, and then stand outside the hospital, under the window of the ward, realizing in despair, that there's nothing he is able to do to save his severe ill son. He's himself like a scared child, who doesn't understand what's happening, why his little loved one in trouble and suffers pain and he, his father, has no way to relieve this pain.            On the 4th of May Mirza will be three years old. But he may never be three unless the fungus infection is killed and treatment for leukemia is continued. Without our help, Mirza has no chance.       Little Mirza sleeps holding his baby fork and spoon tight in his hand.    And in Makhachkala, two thousand kilometers away, little Diana is dreaming, too. In her dreams, they go to school together, hand in hand.       Little sister still waits Mirza home. "Come back home, Mirza!"       If you can help Mirza, please contact us.    THE ORIGINAL STORY WAS PUBLISHED IN "AiF Zdorovye", issue 16 (504), April 15, 2004    Moscow, Russia