“I would like to at least try to live a normal life and I ask for all your help!”. It’s the message of Gabriel, a 22-year-old young man, passionate about anime, comics and the English language. A rare and aggressive disease causes him excruciating pain and life-threatening infections. He urgently needs two operations, without which his organs could begin to fail. The hope comes from Japan, but it also has a cost, far too high for the possibilities of the mother, who raises it alone: at least 100,000 euros. “It’s very hard, especially as a mother, when you see so much suffering and you’re powerless”says the woman. Together we can help them!
Gabriel’s wish
At 22, Gabriel doesn’t want designer clothes or the latest gadget. He just wants less pain. His sufferings are difficult to express in words, says the mother. But there is hope, in Japan, in the person of a doctor recognized for difficult cases.
“We can also hope for a normal life for him. To a life where pain won’t wake you up, go to sleep with pain, like Gabriel’s life right now. White nights where the body actually has to be very tired and give in to fall asleep. That is Gabriel’s sleep, in that surrender, because the pain is still there, it never goes away, and what wakes him from this state of so-called sleep is the pain that intensifies. When poor Gabriel can no longer, he says <
“Only prayers to the Mother of God and to the Good God help us take each day one at a time. Because it’s very hard, especially as a mother, when you see so much suffering and you’re powerless, that you can’t take it yourself. You watch and don’t know how to help. That’s the biggest pain!”
Gabriel’s illness
Gabriel was born with Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome, a rare disease that cannot be treated in Romania.
“It is a congenital malformation that affects blood vessels, lymphatic vessels and bones. For example, because of this disease, Gabriel has an “elephant” left leg. It is double the size of his right leg, because underneath Gabriel has lymphatic vessels, but they are not connected to any channel, and then he only has a mass of vessels that keeps accumulating lymph, and at some point, when it becomes a surplus, the lymph starts to flow out. Effectively, like a strainer. At some point, I don’t even know where to bandage his leg, and I finish bandaging one place, that I have to change the compresses and the bandage from another”says the mother, who takes care of him day and night.
“The hardest and most serious part is that when these lymph leaks start, it facilitates the entry of bacteria and infections occur. Sometimes we manage to treat them at home, sometimes they require hospitalization, because in 22 years Gabriel’s infections have become more and more severe. For example, five years ago he had two combined infections: the one from the disease – herpes – and a dermatitis. I have never seen anything like this in my life! It was something you can only experience in nightmares. The leg looked as if it had been burned, the skin was actually black, with many cracks, through which blood and lymph flowed.” his mother remembers.
Operations in France, a failure
In December 2023, he was operated on for the first time in France, but things did not go well.
“There were many complications: kidney failure, problems with the pancreas, the veins broke and the treatment that was for the kidneys infiltrated. Very, very many complications!”.
Two more interventions followed, and after one of them, ,,la five days apart, Gabriel had half of his groin surgery. He was re-operated. And easy, easy, and the complications and pains appeared that absolutely do not stop at all. Gabriel was telling me: <
The interventions in Japan, essential for his life
From the mother of another patient, Oana Bălăcean found out about a doctor from Japan, known for impossible cases – Dr. Yamamoto Takumi.
“He told us he could still help Gabriel and explained why the operations in France didn’t work. He told us that after years of research in India, Japan and Taiwan, they came to the conclusion that until you go in radically and remove absolutely everything that is affected tissue, you don’t see the results”.
Gabriel has already been to a consultation in Japan, with the help of the money raised from the donations. There he and his mother learned that he needed two urgent operations.
“The worst part is the lung. When the surgery broke, some of the lymph broke through the pleura of the lung and entered the lung. The doctor told us that he has the entire left side of his body covered in this malformation. Everything that means brain, eyes, heart, lungs, kidneys, absolutely everything. I can always go up. Especially if Gabriel doesn’t do these two operations, his organs will fail one by one, because the body is already very tired after 22 years of infections and fighting”.
The operations are complicated, but they would bring Gabriel the life he now only dreams of: no pain day and night and no infections to put him at risk.
“During the first operation, they will give him local anesthesia and they will make some connections between the blood vessels and the lymphatic vessels, caught through small bypasses called anastomoses. He is the best in the world at these anastomoses. Without these connections, the lymph will continue to circulate chaotically. The second operation, from what the doctor told us, will be much harder and more difficult. (…) In short, they will take off all the skin from Gabriel’s leg, remove all the affected tissue and then take grafts from him as well, from his back and reconstruct the leg, including the groin area. After this operation, we will stay in the hospital for at least three weeks”.
My mother also saw photos of patients already operated on, and the results are amazing. Now, he wishes Gabriel had that chance too.
Accounts where donations can be made
100,000 euros are the estimated costs only for the first operation. But together we can help Gabriel. Accounts open for donations are as follows:
BCR account:
RO72RNCB0094164998250001
Beneficiary Balacean Gabriel
Banca Transilvania account:
RO18BTRLRONCRT0568452701
Beneficiary Balacean Gabriel
BCR account Asociatia Premeuna Pentru Gabriel
RO33RNCB0078174665430001
Who. 47260899
PayPal account [email protected]
