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Pabitra's surgery was succesful!
Pabitra was born with a rare congenital anomaly bladder exstrophy, meaning her urinary bladder was exposed outside of the body. Moreover, the pelvic bones are widely separated which affected the way she walked. This could only be treated with surgery, but due to the poor financial condition, her single mom could not afford to take her to the hospital. When Tom Konert, a medical volunteer from VIN in 2012, learned about her condition, he decided he wanted to help her. With the aid of Dr Ghimire from VIN he was able to find specialized surgeons who were willing to treat Pabitra for free, but money was still needed for the pre and post-operative care. Tom ran a half-marathon in Leiden, the Netherlands and managed to raise 1422 euro together with another Dutch volunteer, Nicole Schouwenaar. With this money, Pabitra could get her surgery and the necessary medication. Pabitra is now able to go to school again. Her mother is happy to see her daughter living a normal life again and never imagined anyone could do something about her congenital anomaly. Here is Pabitra’s happy face picture after the surgery. AGAIN, THANK YOU ALL for your support!
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Nabin's kidney transplant was succesful!
On Sunday, March 6th 2016, I showed up at the start of the 42th CPC Run The Hague and ran a half marathon for Nabin. Together with the other volunteers I raised money to help Nabin get a kidney transplantation. Nabin is a 16 year old Nepali boy who had been diagnosed with end stage kidney disease. This bright and caring teenager miraculously survived the Nepal earthquake in April 2015. His home a short distance outside of Kathmandu was hit by the tremors just a minute after he stepped outside. Nabin faced an even bigger challenge as both his kidneys had failed after a brief illness and therefore he needed a transplant. Together with Volunteers Initiative Nepal, Leila Khakbaz, Paul Metcalfe and a lot of other ex volunteers from VIN, we raised an amazing amount of in total $23,172. Nabin's kidney transplantation was performed on the 29th of March 2016. His father donated a kidney for him. Both the operations were successful.
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