Born between the wars

Dzharaydat Edilsultanova is originally from Chechnya. She is 13 years old. She was born with a congenital anomaly – tethered  spinal cord syndrome. In “plain medical language” it means congenital hypoplasia of spinal cord. The girl has undergone 2 surgeries, but still one more is needed. The most important one.

The doctors at  Burdenko Institute are ready to operate any moment. The only thing is to find money for the operation – one hundred and eighteen thousand rubles.

Dzharaydat was born between the two Chechen wars. Yet she was caught in the war – her pregnant mother Aza came under shelling and was seriously injured. The mother survived by a miracle. And an incredible miracle it was that she saved her daughter. The mother’s body became an armor for Dzhayraydat.

But because of the injuries the girl was born prematurely and  with a severe disease – congenital spinal hernia. Her life began in an intensive care unit.

For that child to survive it took another miracle by the will of Almighty. If a baby with such a diagnosis is not operated on immediately, the lower part of the body simply atrophies. There is only half-a-human left….

But the miracle did happen again – there was a doctor to be found  in all but razed to the ground Grozny, an operating room and some medicines.

Soon the second war began, and the girl lived through it by the courage of her mother and father  who were getting medicines, vitamins, taking their daughter for treatment.

But the disease proved to have some very serious consequences  – since almost all her first years Dzharaydat lived under anesthesia, she will have to take hormones all her life (may God grant her more health and strength).

Yet all the miracles and feats did their job – the girl was developping physically almost on a par with her peers. A little later than normal she started crawling, at three she walked, at seven – went to a regular school. But when Dzharaydat was 8 years old the war was back in her life.

The girl was brought to Moscow for medical examination, and there the diagnosis became known – tethered spinal cord syndrome. Doctors explained that a new operation was required – and that it would be not the last one.  For a year after that operation the girl was not able to get out of bed, and she had to spend a whole year learning to walk anew.

Now Dzharaydat needs another operation. She is afraid this time she will have to take her bed in hospital for long, but she has already decided what to do in this case. Dzharaydat wants to learn English to travel around the world. Not just travel but to go to various flash points and save children, as she was saved once, too.

“She is determined to become a military doctor and to treat children,” her mom Aza said.

But first Dzharaydat herself needs to get well.

Unfortunately government guotas of free medical treatment do not apply to her, so the girl’s parents will have to pay for the operation at Burdenko Institute. Which costs 118 000 rubles. But  Dzharaydat’s family lives on the tiny pensions the  girl and her disabled father get, and most of it they spend on drugs.

The family has no savings – everything has already been spent on the previous miracles.

They have no rich relatives, nobody to borrow the money from.

And most importantly, there is no time.

There is only Dzharaydat, born between the wars.

And there are us, who can help.

Julia Akhmedova

To help Dzharaydat:

–  Send  money to Dzharaydat in cash through Solidarity Foundation staff
–  Print out receipt  and transfer money through the bank
–  Transfer   through the Internet
–  Choose any other way to donate  to Dzharaydat