OUR OBJECTIVE

The aim is to financially support the treatment of Beník M. (4) from Pozděchov, who suffered a cerebral infarction before he was born, as a result of which his brain is very damaged. In addition, the boy suffers from partial paralysis of the left half of his body and epileptic seizures.

In October 2021, our longed-for son Benjamin was born. At the beginning everything seemed fine and it seemed that our only problem would be a right-sided head predilection, which would soon improve or be completely corrected with the help of the Vojta method. Unfortunately, despite honest home exercises 5 times a day, Benny's condition did not improve much. He could turn his head better, but his left leg and hand were still missing. The exercises continued and we believed that his condition would continue to improve, but unfortunately in April 2022, a few days before Easter, we witnessed a strange state of shaking in Benny, which planted a seed of doubt in our minds that perhaps everything was not as banal as it first seemed. Thanks to the great cooperation of our pediatrician, we were referred to a neurologist, followed by a head ultrasound, which revealed a bigger problem than it seemed.

In August 2022, we were admitted to The University Hospital Brno, where an magnetic resonance imaging and EEG less than a year after Benny was born marked the collapse of our world. The diagnosis of West's syndrome (a severe epileptic disease) and cerebral palsy," was like a cold shower and a fall into darkness. Benny had a cerebral infarction before he was born and his brain is very damaged as a result. Partial paralysis of the left half of the body, epileptic seizures and not very positive prognosis.

The days, weeks, months that followed were filled with despair, fear, worry and depression. According to the words of chief medical officer Horák, the right hemisphere of the brain was in a very bad condition, Benny was unfortunately not responding to medication, so the only treatment option for us was to avoid damage to the rest of the brain by intensifying epileptic seizures. Hemispherectomy (in layman's terms, permanently disconnecting half of the brain). More devastating news. Something you really don't want to hear when you're holding a longed-for and beloved being in your arms.

Days and weeks passed in constant stress and fear of what will happen tomorrow, the day after tomorrow..

What's next for us? Constant observation to see if Benny's getting worse, if a seizure is imminent. Feelings of frustration and helplessness over a sleeping child we can't help.

Then, finally, a bit of luck, the medication started to work and the frequency of epileptic seizures decreased. Hope for a miracle.

Thanks to the treatment, after a while he stabilized enough that we could start rehabilitation, again returning to the Vojta method, Bobath concept, intensive neurorehabilitation treatment, occupational therapy, speech therapy and other compensatory exercises, thanks to which Benik is making incredible progress in both physical and mental development. After many months of hopelessness, fear and helplessness, there is a glimmer of hope and the possibility that things might not be so bad.

In June 2023, we had a spa treatment at Sanatorium Klimkovice followed by intensive neurorehabilitation with speech therapy and occupational therapy at Axon Zlín. Now we regularly come to Arcada NeuroMedical Centrum Hranice for intensive and outpatient therapies. Unfortunately, this type of rehabilitation therapy is not covered by insurance and so we have no choice but to pay for it from our own resources. Also the cost of medicines, compensatory aids - walkers, braces and much more is unfortunately covered by insurance partially or not at all.

Therefore, we are very grateful to all the people who support us financially on our journey. ❤️

We believe that thanks to the financially demanding but high quality treatment, Benny will be able to live a full and quality life.