Elias was born one of twins, and in October of 2021 he and his sister celebrated their 1st birthdays. They were born prematurely (at 31 weeks) by caesarean section, and at birth Elias was unable to breath unaided and had to be revived by the doctors. At first it appeared that everything was fine after the initial problem, and we were extremely happy that our family of four now had two healthy new additions.

Unfortunately, after a week a visible lesion of the white matter was discovered during an ultrasound of the brain. No-one was certain what effects this might have on Elias‘ development, and if it would affect his ability to reach the normal developmental milestones as he grew up. Elias has been very strong through all of this and dealt with the adversity caused by his premature birth extremely well, and fortunately his sister is fine.

Whilst still in the hospital Elias started with Vojta therapy and was receiving this four times a day. When the twins reached two months we realised that Elias‘ development was lagging behind his sisters, and although we were told by family, friends and the doctors not to compare the twins it was very hard not to. Eliza developed well and grew strong and healthy, while Elias‘ progress stagnated.

At four months he was diagnosed with a vision problem caused by damage to the central nervous system, so we attempted to stimulate his visual acuity with exercises to help his sight develop. At fifteen months he was still unable to roll, sit or crawl on his own and had a weak back and spastic arms and legs and weighs only a little over 6 kg so we have nicknamed him „our little pea“.

The neurologist has diagnosed Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (brain damage) Microcrania (slow head growth), visual impairment, strabismus and cerebral palsy of both arms and legs.

Elias practises regularly and has started Hyperbaric oxygen therapy and has had the first stem cells application to repair the damaged nerve cells, but one application of this treatment is not enough and he requires 3-4 treatments for the effects to be noticeable. It has been recommended that the nervous system is stimulated as much as possible after treatments and that intense rehabilitation sessions could help Elias to use the stem cell treatments as effectively as possible.

All of the therapy, rehabilitation, medical equipment and nutritional and dietary supplements are very expensive, but we would love to be able to help him build his cognitive abilities and to grow and develop as much as possible, although we appreciate this will be a long process.

Thank you very much for your support, it is very much appreciated.