Stem cell treatment for Martinka

Dear friends,

I would like to ask you for financial help for stem cell treatment in Mexico. Thanks to your help I had this treatment for the first time 2 years ago and I would like to have it again. After the first application I have made many improvements,whether in the locomotor, motor or thermoregulatory area. More stem cells would have been a great help and would have taken me one step further towards my desired goal of walking independently.

My name is Martinka and I was born in August 2017. During my pregnancy, together with my mother, I already underwent an intrauterine surgery in Belgium due to a diagnosis of spina bifida. Thanks to the surgery, my hydrocephalus (brain swelling) stopped and my head was back to normal by the end of the pregnancy. I also have serious orthopedic problems: pes equinovarus congenitus (so-called horse feet), dislocated kneecap and dislocated hips. I came into the world prematurely, by caesarean section, and spent 7 weeks in the incubator and neonatology. So I have been a fighter since birth! I was discharged from the hospital with a diagnosis of complete paralysis of my legs from the cleft down.

But hope dies last! After I was discharged from the hospital, I started to visit the Vienna Orthopaedic Clinic, where the experts straightened my feet into the right position for 3 months with the help of casts. At the end of this process, I had to undergo an operation during which my Achilles tendons were cut.

Since Christmas 2017, I have been cast-free, but it is not easy because I have to wear special braces for 20 hours a day to prevent my feet from curling up again. Daily rehabilitation with my mom and massages are also very important.

In 2019 I had a series of hip, pelvis and femur surgeries in Vienna. I was in a plaster cast for 10 long weeks and have been wearing braces again since then. In March this year I had surgery to remove screws from my femurs. My hips are now in the correct position, which makes me very happy.

Unfortunately, as a result of an accident caused by my cousin, I cannot wear the brace on my right leg for a long time, and it is now completely twisted inwards, so I have to have another operation abroad. So at the moment I am confined to a wheelchair and cannot stand up. I still have a lot to do. So far I can move my legs up to my knees, but from my ankles down I have no feeling.

Stem cell therapy is not available in Slovakia, but it changes people’s lives and literally puts the sick on their feet! That is why I would like to undergo this treatment again. At the clinic in Mexico they already know about me and are happy to treat me. However, the problem is finances – this treatment costs 18 200 USD, which is a lot of money. But I believe that thanks to you, good people, this money will be collected and I will be one step closer to my dream of walking independently.

Thank you!

Martinka