Michał from Stegna has needed help for 28 years. Now his mother needs it too
For twenty-eight years Krystyna, from the seaside village of Stegna on Poland's Baltic coast, has cared for her son. Michał was four when, on 22 December 1997, the car he was travelling in left the road and hit a tree; his drunk father was driving. Multiple injuries, brain swelling, a damaged cervical spine, a ruptured trachea. He spent more than a year in hospital after the accident and returned dozens of times since. Today he has paralysis of all four limbs and advanced muscle wasting, weighs 35 kilogrammes at 170 centimetres, and is entirely dependent on others.
In brief
Fundacja Auxilia is running a fundraiser on zrzutka.pl for the rehabilitation and treatment of Michał from Stegna and for the treatment of his mother, Krystyna. Michał was four years old when, on 22 December 1997, a car driven by his drunk father went into a ditch and hit a tree. Michał now has quadriparesis and, at 170 centimetres tall, weighs 35 kilograms. Krystyna, who has cared for her son for twenty-eight years, has a malignant jaw tumour and has undergone two operations.
Taught at home, he finished primary school, lower secondary and an IT technical school. He cannot work, and speaks with difficulty because his trachea never fully recovered. He needs daily rehabilitation to slow further muscle loss and contractures, medicines and medical supplies, and his orthopaedic bed and wheelchair, after years of use, need repair and replacement.
Through all of it his mother was there. Now Krystyna herself has a malignant tumour of the jaw; she has undergone two operations in which part of her jaw and tongue were removed, and still cares for her son every day. What Michał fears most, the foundation running the appeal writes, is what will happen to him when his mother no longer has the strength.
The appeal for Michał's rehabilitation and treatment, medicines and equipment, and for Krystyna's treatment is run by the Auxilia Foundation on the Polish crowdfunding platform zrzutka.pl: https://zrzutka.pl/d2pg3k, which accepts international card payments. The foundation asked us to help reach people in the region. Stegna is in ours, so we ask: if you can, donate or pass it on. Every amount and every share matters, and in this story, for twenty-eight years, nobody asked for anything.
Source: Gazeta Morska · Compiled by: Kamil Kusier
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