Marina

Ukraine teen Marina survives home bombardment!

A new charity is being organized to help Ukrainian children with medical expenses who otherwise are unable to get lifesaving medical care. It is WeCareUA.org. Marina is one of the first of many victims of the terrible war in Ukraine. She was caught in an intense shelling of her hometown of Chuhuiv (Chuguev), near Kharkiv, Ukraine early in the war. Her injuries have left her not only with severe facial scars, but also with internal obstructions to her breathing. She has already fainted 3 times from reduced airflow to her lungs–similar to partial strangulation or suffocation. She could die without an operation to rebuild her nasal cavity airways.

At an age when a young woman is supposed to be studying and socializing with classmates, Marina is struggling to survive. She needs immediate maxillofacial surgery and, hopefully, some plastic surgery to reduce the scars marking up her forehead and scalp. Let's get her the medical help she requires to start returning to a more normal daily life and a positive future. Let's help this innocent victim of war regain her health and beauty. All proceeds will be used for medical operations and medications. Documentation is being provided.

Updates

September 6, 2022 by Dennis Jans, Organizer

September 06 - I'm seeking help now to find a laptop for Marina so she can continue her studies online. For Ukraine's school children, the academic year started on September 1st, and Marina is recovering from recent surgery in Kyiv. She needs to continue her classes online for now, but doesn't have online access to her lessons. Any donations now will be used to get her a laptop.

August 11, 2022 by Dennis Jans, Organizer

Mom Yana’s report from yesterday 10 August 2022:

“Hello, the operations were successful, sympathy is not very good, she can’t breathe through her nose yet.

They did a septoplasty of the nose and reduced one scar, then they will make cosmetic injections into the scars.

But this is two weeks later, when they find the drug.”

AGAIN, many thanks to all for prayers and contributions! This sweet child has suffered enough!

August 3, 2022 by Dennis Jans, Organizer

8/03/22 Update - Almost all the funds for 2 operations have been collected. Marina's mother Yana is thankful to all of us who have donated and sent prayers for a successful outcome. In an ironic twist, both surgeries are scheduled for August 9th: Marina's 15th birthday.

I am keeping this fundraiser open because future plastic surgery will be needed. Next update will be post-surgeries.

July 27, 2022 by Dennis Jans, Organizer

27 July 2022 - Marina's surgery is scheduled for early August, but the funding is not complete. We are $550 short of full funding for this important operation, and there will be follow-up procedures later this year. I'm making this final push to collect funds by next week. Please donate, even $5 or $10, and copy the link to your Facebook and other social media sites. Thank you!

July 6, 2022 by Dennis Jans, Organizer

Yana took Marina to a doctor's appointment in Kyiv yesterday, and the results have been detailed in a document I will attach here and have translated to English next week.

If the goal for this fundraiser can be reached before then, Marina will have 2 operations on August 4th. She will have her nasal cavity repaired and some initial plastic surgery to reduce the scars across her scalp, forehead and cheek.

I ask all who read this to please share this fundraiser on social media and with other supporters of Ukraine and humanitarian organizations. Please also pray for Marina's healing. Thanks!

July 6, 2022 by Dennis Jans, Organizer

Here's an article about Marina from a local newspaper translated to English:

The whole face was cut with glass: the story of a girl from the Kharkiv region who survived after the shelling

APRIL 23, 2022 18:50

Scars on the face and on the soul. 15-year-old Marina from Chuguev, whose house was shelled on the first day of the war, received serious injuries and her face was slashed with glass fragments, writes the Suspilny website.

As the mother of the girl Yana said, in Chuguev, she and her daughter lived in a rented apartment next to the runway. When the shell exploded for the first time, the woman thought that the exercises were taking place, so she calmly left for work in the hospital.

“Then, when it continued to bang and people fled, in all directions, I called my daughter, I said:“ Marina, get ready and go to work with me. fell on her. My daughter's face was cut. I didn't know what happened to her, she just didn't pick up the phone. I returned home. There are no windows, no doors, no Marina. The neighbors said that an ambulance had taken her," Yana said.

Shards of glass were taken out of Marina's body for several more weeks. There are numerous stitches on her face. But in general, the doctors say, the girl was "born in a shirt," and the scars are fixable.

"They sewed it up neatly, but there are also rough seams. The skin is stretched at the eyebrow half as high as necessary. Subsequently, not plastic surgery of the face, but laser resurfacing will be required. The face will recover, but what's inside her... a crybaby, but she withstood everything. The mood is now mostly cheerful, Marina is joking. But sometimes there is aggressiveness, tearfulness, like we all have now. She is now afraid of windows, mirrors, doors. So that if something happens, nothing falls on her "

When my daughter was discharged from the hospital, we went to live with my mother. For two weeks, when Marina slept, she covered herself with a blanket over her head," says the girl's mother.

Now a 15-year-old girl leads a reclusive life, as she is afraid to go out into the street. Loud noises also scare her, she immediately hides.

The girl cannot yet study remotely, as the Internet does not work in the basement where she hides with her family. To escape from sad thoughts and anxiety, Marina began to draw.

“Marina has a transitional age. I’m afraid that she won’t decide to do something with herself. We have some tough people. But she’s done well on this. I told her:“ The main thing is that she’s alive. Everything else can be fixed. The one who needs you will love you for who you are," the mother of the injured girl is sure.

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