Fundraising to save baby Leanne

Dear friends,

My name is Masha Zhigunova and I work at Vejthani hospital in Bangkok.

This little baby desperately needs our help !

Letter from her mother :

"Leanne is our little princess.
Two months after she was born, doctors said she will only have days and maybe weeks to live. Every time she cries, she will turn purple and then stops breathing which once lead her to have her heart completely stopped. If she has another cardiac arrest she may not survive. So that day, the nurses put the Wonder Woman costume on her.

Today is her 9 months birthday.
Doctors said she might not live to celebrate her first birthday, so we celebrate it every month.

Leanne was diagnosed with trisomy 13 and congenital heart disease. Her condition was not detected during pregnancy until she reached 3 weeks old. She was moved from NICU, ward, PICU, long term care and ICU, and from one hospital to another, but never been home. We contacted all the hospitals that could possibly do the surgery for her but unfortunately they all refused because of her trisomy.

Originally from Philippines, our family is permanently residing in the U.A.E but due to finding the proper treatment for Leanne we are currently in Thailand where she has been admitted since the beginning of May.
My husband stopped working to focus on taking care of Leanne while I had to go back to work as I have been on leave for more than a year now. Her insurance is running out being in the hospital her whole life and she will still need a series of heart surgeries, a continuous therapy and lifetime medications."

During this period of intensive treatment and given Leanne's young age, one parent will need to look after her full time which means one income will need to be sacrificed during this difficult period.

It's not easy to ask, but I hope that people who can imagine how heartbreaking it can be to have your own child being in such condition can help to defray the high medical costs to treat Leanne and help her to survive.

Anything you can give will mean the world to this family.  

On behalf of the parents and the young Leanne herself, thank you in advance for your support and kindness.

More information

Contact Vejthani hospital : +66 2 734 0000
Contact Joel Carbonell (Dad) : +66 9 58650353
Contact La Visitacion Carbonell (Mum) : +66 9 67904145
Contact me (Masha) : +66 8 52305555

Reminder : Leanne has a double outlet right ventricle (DORV) and a large VSD in her heart.
Because of these, the oxygen rich blood and oxygen poor blood in her heart are mixing and results in a lot of blood going to her lungs which causes pulmonary hypertension, heart failure and breathing problems.

So last June 28 she had a pulmonary artery banding and PDA ligation as palliative treatment as it will not correct the defect of her heart but was still needed in order to decrease the pulmonary hypertension and protect the lungs from an irreversible damage.
Without this surgery she would have lived only maximum 2 years because of the damage to the lungs.
The open heart surgery was not an option due to its extreme high risk because of the hypertension.

Leanne responded well to the first surgery.
Now the surgeons next planned treatment is the total corrective open heart surgery in about 6 months to finally correct her DORV and VSD.
Her heart is still not fixed now because surgeon did not recommend it but, at least, the first surgery will protect her lungs.

We are still in great need of donations as this previous surgery was the last one covered by the insurance.
We have no idea how we gonna finance the next surgery and we would be really glad if you could at least share Leanne's story in order to bring attention to our little girl case and get some financial support from the community.

Thank you in advance for your help.