Mum pleads two hospitals that promised to save son’s life to give him surgery date saying ‘I’m watching my son die’
A MUM has begged the two hospitals that promised to save her son’s life to give him a date for his surgery and cried: “I’m watching my son die.”
Last year doctors discovered 17-year-old Nikita Medalovich from Douglas, Co Cork, had a large tumour behind his nose, which is threatening his life.
He was told the surgery would go ahead in January this year, but operations were cancelled due to Covid. However, his mum Irina Antonyuk has heard nothing since.
Nikita now can no longer breathe through his nose, has lost weight, has continuous bleeds, is losing vision and cannot sleep.
Irina said she first noticed something was wrong about two years ago and has been fighting ever since.
Speaking to the Irish Sun from Douglas, she said: “About two years ago, my son had the flu. From then on, there were always problems with his nose, it was always running.
“I went to the GP after a while and he said it was probably sinuses. He gave us antibiotics but they didn’t help. Then they said it could be an allergy. They gave us another antibiotic and then something else but it was four months of treating it with no success.”
Her GP sent Nikita to a specialist in Cork, but she had to wait months for an appointment.
URGENT SURGERY
After a series of tests, the specialist had bad news. Irina said: “He was very upset. He said, ‘Unfortunately, there is a tumour there and that is why the nose is blocked. He needs urgent surgery that is very complex, it is a very rare tumour.’
“But there were no surgeons in Ireland who’d done a surgery like this before so they referred us to the most senior surgeon in Ireland.”
Despite being told it was ‘extremely urgent,’ weeks went by with no appointment. When they eventually got a date, they went to Dublin for the consultation.
Irina said: “The doctor told us he would try and put a team together and do it in Ireland. I said I was very happy that they could do it here, and he said he would book the team.
“At this stage I got to see the tumour myself, it was huge. He told us it needed to be removed urgently, and couldn’t wait. He said he would organise the surgery for January 16 and we were really happy to hear this.”
GETTING WORSE
But again there was no word and when surgeries were cancelled due to Covid-19, Irina found out from news bulletins.
She said: “We heard the news but we understood, and said maybe it would be in March. So when I heard surgeries were back, I started to call every day.
“It was difficult to get through and if you do, they kept passing us between St James Hospital, where the surgery was due to be, saying we needed to call the Eye and Ear Hospital as they had the file and them saying call St James.”
For Irina, every time she had to make a call to try and get help, she was getting more and more desperate. She added: “I was leaving so many messages saying my son had become worse and each time they’d tell me to call someone else. I was looking at my son becoming so much worse, honestly he has lost so much weight.
“Can you imagine looking at your child who is dying and not being able to help?
“We’ve had this for two years. Now he is 17, he doesn’t eat properly because he doesn’t have an appetite, he’s so depressed and has anxiety. He can’t sleep, his nose is always bleeding and the tumour makes it hard for him to breathe.
IN PAIN
“It’s getting worse. In March, he could only breathe through one nostril. But since then the tumour has grown and now he can’t breathe through his nose at all. He has to breathe through his mouth and this puts pressure on his eyes.
“He has blurry vision and when we went to the GP, he said the tumour is starting to block parts of his eyes and ears.”
She broke down: “It’s not my job to call every day. It is awful and scary. Nikita is so depressed, he thinks it will never happen. He is so tired. Every day he is in pain.”
Despite this, Nikita tried to continue studying online, but his illness keeps him from progressing and doing his Leaving Cert.
He had hoped to go to college to become a computer software engineer.
Irina told us: “I am exhausted and he is the same. I don’t know what to do anymore.”
Irina told us she has since found hospitals around the world who will carry out the procedure, the closest being in Germany.
She added: “I’m working full time to try and save money. Everything’s expensive, even the medicines for the pain, so we need to know if the HSE are going to do the surgery or if we have to go to Germany. We are so lost.” The HSE have told us it is up to each Health Group to comment, but the Ireland East Hospital Group, responsible for the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear hospital said they do not comment on individual cases.
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St James’s Hospital also told the Irish Sun they do not comment on individual cases.
Read more on the Irish Sun
Irina is now fundraising to go to the team in Germany who have agreed to do the surgery if needed.
TO donate, visit: gofundme.com/f/help-nikita-to-remove-tumor