Sebastian Moskal is 19 years old and has his whole life ahead of him. Behind him eleven operations and nearly three years of struggle for health. Another great battle is ahead of him – that he should be able to walk. He will not win it without our help.
It started innocently with a pain in my left leg. It hurt the most in the morning. – My son woke up and asked “Mom, take me to school, my leg hurts a bit”. But it was nothing like that, he didn’t even take painkillers, because it passed quickly – recalls Bożena Miczek, Sebastian’s mother. After two weeks of complaints, she took her son to a doctor in her hometown of Tarnów.
– The pediatrician said it was nothing, normal growing pains, they will go away on their own. But they didn’t pass, so we went for an ultrasound privately. It showed a tumor extending from the tibia to nearly 10 centimeters. We did an X-ray and MRI immediately. Diagnosis – most likely bone cancer.
When you hear that your child may have cancer, it’s like a bomb went off in your head. Another tears you apart when the initial diagnosis is confirmed.
– We immediately received a referral to the Institute of Mother and Child in Warsaw. There, a biopsy was taken and it was confirmed that it was an osteosarcoma, an osteosarcoma. The most malignant tumor in children and adolescents.
The enemy within
Osteosarcoma, also called osteosarcoma, is a primary cancer of bone tissue. It is considered a bone tumor most often diagnosed in children and adolescents aged 10-20 years. In 75 percent. cases affect people under 19 years of age, the peak incidence falls on puberty (10-14 years), which, according to doctors, may be related to the growth spike. Getting sick with it is a bit like winning a “black lottery” – osteosarcoma is diagnosed in an average of 5 teenagers per million every year. Mature people get it even less often (1-2 cases per million). In Poland, 60-100 adult cases are diagnosed annually.
Most often, the first attack is carried out on the long bones forming the knee joint, there in 50 percent. patients find the primary tumor. Metastases appear very quickly, apart from the bones, the sarcoma attacks the lungs. Nearly half of the patients have tumors in them at the time of diagnosis. Sebastian was diagnosed with them after three months of intensive chemotherapy and four weeks after surgery to remove the tumor from the leg bones.
– To this day, my son has had eleven surgeries, including three openings of his chest to remove tumors from the lungs. He hasn’t had chemotherapy for 15 months, but like all other sick babies, he has a tommograph every three months to check for new inflammations and metastatic lesions. Today it is oncologically “clean”, there are no new changes.
If the cancer does not return within 5 years, the chances of its recurrence are minimal after this time. But although Sebastian dealt with osteosarcoma, his fight was not over. Now the stake is the preservation of the leg damaged by cancer and operations.
Black series
It started after the first operation, carried out at the Children’s and Adolescent Oncological Surgery Clinic of the Institute of Mother and Child in Warsaw. The surgeons removed the tumor together 14 cm of the bone and the knee joint, and replaced the cut section with an oncological endoprosthesis, an artificial bone that saves from amputation and allows the patient to walk on his own. As long as no complications arise. In this draw, Sebastian once again received the weakest cards.
– Already at the first postoperative follow-up, one month after the end of oncological treatment, the ultrasound showed purulent foci along the entire endoprosthesis. My son got antibiotics, which made it even worse, he was already going into sepsis. The surgeons decided to immediately remove the prosthesis and replaced it with a therapeutic speacer, and the leg was plastered for five months. After this time, another operation: removal of the speacer, insertion of a new prosthesis. The tedious and difficult rehabilitation began, but it seemed that everything would be all right now.
Unfortunately, after three months, the ultrasound again revealed infections along the endoprosthesis.
– Oil again, surgery to remove the prosthesis and put in a cement speacer with flow drainage. During the operation, the peroneal nerve was damaged. It got worse and worse. Complications appeared, tissue necrosis occurred, after three weeks the wound opened. Doctors started talking about amputation.
Sebastian was rescued from cutting his leg by hyperbaric therapy, after the procedures in the chamber the wound closed, and he has been in a cast again for four months. However, the time when the spaecer can be safely stuck in the leg is running out. According to doctors, it should be removed after three months and another prosthesis should be inserted, which, like the previous two, will probably be rejected by Sebastian’s body. Another problem is that due to complications, the diseased leg is lacking muscle and tissue.
– Inflammation literally ate his leg, the doctors had a problem with closing the wound during the last operation because they lacked tissues.
Fortunately, there was a light at the end of the tunnel.
– It turned out that there is a possibility of consultation in a clinic in Vienna. There, additional tests were done for my son, which showed that he was allergic to the metal of endoprostheses. The only chance to avoid amputation is an operation to insert a prosthesis covered with a special antiallergic coating and a simultaneous muscle and tissue transplant.
Such joint operations are not performed in Poland. It is also not possible to replace the prosthesis with one that will not sensitize Sebastian (the Viennese clinic offered antiallergenic coverage of the Polish endoprosthesis, but it is legally owned by the National Health Fund, so there is no consent for it). Private surgery in Austria is the only chance Sebastian will not lose his leg.
– In Vienna, the professor gives hope that after the operation the son will not only walk, but that the knee, which has been stiff for almost three years, will bend. He will regain fitness, he will be able to get into the car, get a driving license! This is his son’s twelfth operation and the first he is looking forward to.
A chance for normality
If the surgery is successful, and the doctors have a good chance of it, Sebastian’s life will finally return to normal. He will be able to finish school (now he repeats the third year in high school for the second time and, due to the months spent in the hospital, he learns individually) and does what he loves, i.e. swimming.
– From the first grade of elementary school, throughout middle school, he was in the swimming section, loves water and swimming. He also rode a bicycle and went skiing with his father every year. He will not come back to this, because the risk of damaging the enoprosthesis is too high, but he will be able to go to the swimming pool.
First of all, Sebastian will finally leave the apartment on the second floor without an elevator, in which he has been spending most of his time for over two years. Not only because the rigidly plastered leg and crutches prevent him from going down the stairs.
– After such a long and hard chemotherapy, her morphology results are at the borderline of normal, and her immunity is almost nil. He needs to be protected against bacteria and viruses, so far he cannot participate in normal life.
The Viennese leg salvage operation was scheduled for January 20, due to wound suppuration, infection and the fact that it was the last moment to remove the spaecer. There is only one, but a huge problem – the cost of the procedure is as much as 58 euros. There is no chance that Sebastian’s mother, a divorced teacher who quit her job to look after her son, could raise that amount.
– We’ve managed somehow so far. The family, my ex-husband helped, we didn’t ask people for help. But we will not collect such a huge amount, which is why we have launched a public fundraiser. At the moment, we have collected 35 thousand. zlotys, which is still far too little.
Sebastian’s classmates also joined in collecting money for the operation. Under the supervision of teachers, they organized a Christmas market where they sold homemade pastries, candles and centerpieces. They donated the sum obtained from the sale to the costs of the operation.
– I am very grateful to them that they devoted their son their time, also that they come to visit him, and are in touch with him on Facebook. I hope there will be other people willing to help my son. Every zloty gives you hope to save his leg. He doesn’t have big dreams. I just want to be a normal teenager and be able to walk.
What is Sebastian’s mother’s dream?
– When he finished chemotherapy, he was awarded a beagle puppy. He named him Loki, he is very closely related to him. I would like to see my son take the dog for a walk by himself …
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If you want to help make Sebastian’s dream come true, you can make a payment to the account:
Foundation for Help for Children and Sick People “Kawałek Nieba”
Bank BZ WBK 31 1090 2835 0000 0001 2173 1374
Title: “409 aid in the treatment of Sebastian Moskal”
or send a text message supporting the fundraiser to the number: 72365 with the following text: S3451 (cost PLN 2,46 gross, including VAT).
More about Sebastian’s story and how to help at https://www.siepomaga.pl/sebastian.