Family of first Belarusian woman with heart transplant live on 2 millions
They have to buy food, clothes, drugs and pay for the hall of residence… Natallya Radkevich is asking people to help her.
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The first heart transplant was performed in Belarus on the night of February 12, 2009. “I’m three years old!” – says Natallya Radkevich, the first person with a heart transplant who underwent the surgery in Belarus. Her family can hardly make both ends meet now.
“My bulldozer has been being repaired since December. I get 1 million 100 thousands. It is real for four people to live off it? Natallya receives 500 thousands because she is an invalid of the 2nd disability group. I also get 1 million 100 thousands, - complains Yury Radkevich, Natallya’s husband working at the construction of the metro station “Mihalova”. – I hate complaining. I do not like asking for help. I had seven siblings. I was in the children’s home and learnt to earn everything myself… And now it turns out that no matter how hard I work, the result is poor…”
Yury Radkevich in Kletsk. 2009
Naltallya’s dream to move to Minsk from Kletsk came true last year. She does not have to spend money from the family budget to pay for trips to the capital cardiological centre twice a month anymore. Natallya misses her home town where there were a lot of flowers. Although she does not like to receive flowers as a present: she did not allow her husband to give her flowers even when the kids were born: Ryhor and Mikita.
Yury works for “Metro Construction” now and they have given him a room in the hall of residence. Natallya, her children and paralyzed mother live in two small rooms.
The Radkevichs. 2009
“We have to pay 250 thousands a month for the hall of residence. It would not be so difficult if the wages were bigger. You get it and the prices immediately double! And you do not know how to divide it... You need drugs, this and that... The elder son is in the 9th form. Does he need a PC? He does. I had to contract a debt to buy it”, - continues Yury Radkevich.
A computer means the Internet. Yury read on the Internet that his wife...was dead! I asked him to give me Natallya’s phone number to assure Euroradio listeners that it was not true.
“Somebody said it and the rumour spread... My acquaintances phoned me... they said: “We were afraid to phone you! What if you didn’t answer?..” says Natallya Radkevich.
The Radkevichs have to spend more and more on drugs during flu epidemics. Natallya has caught cold recently. Although all the drugs she has to take after the surgery are sold to her at a 90% discount, the woman has to buy all the other drugs at her own expense.
Natallya Radkevich: “You know, when we fall ill... Antibiotics are very expensive. Moreover, the type does matter. You can take “Amoksiklav” only if you have a fever, a toothache and after a small surgery”.
Ryhor and Mikita Radkevich. 2009
However, the prices for antibiotics are not the main thing that troubles the woman. Her younger son Mikita who will turn 4 in summer has started having heart problems.
The woman has even agreed to go to work to help the family. Furthermore, her disability group has been changed from the 1st to the 2nd – and the pension has decreased accordingly…
Natallya Radkevich: “I told my husband and other people. Of course, I started working. But I cannot do hard work. And I should not work longer than 4 hours a day. Where can I find such a job? It is very difficult to find such work even if you would like to work as a janitor”.
Ordinary people have been helping the Radkevichs all the three years.
“There are two people who help us from time to time – a family from Homel and a woman from Svetlahorsk”, - says Yury Radkevich.
11 heart transplants were conducted in Belarus in 2009. There were 22 in 2010. The unique patient who was the first to undergo the surgery in Belarus is asking people to help her. You can contact the Radkevichs by phone +375 33 6683071 (Yury Anatolevіch).
Photo by: "Free News+", "Arguments and Facts".
