Story By: Ana Marjanovic, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
A bighearted YouTuber managed to raise more than 7,000 GBP in just four hours for a desperate Dad appealing for cash to pay for his seriously ill daughter’s treatment.
Dad Kemal Pehivanovic from Zenica, in Bosnia and Hercegovina, has offered to sell his kidney on social media for 10,000 EUR (8,444 GBP) to save his daughter Lamija Pehivanovic, seven years old.
Lamija was born with a heart defect diagnosed as AVSD (a heart defect in which there are holes between the chambers of the right and left sides of the heart), microcephaly (a condition where the head circumference is smaller than normal), and myeloschisis (a developmental anomaly characterised by a cleft spinal cord which prevents her from walking).
She underwent heart surgery four years ago in Germany but her health problems have continued.
She has been fed through a drip since birth due to a cleft palate. She is unable to eat or speak but these issues could be solved with surgery which she would need to undergo in Turkey.
Father Kemal is trying to raise funds for the surgery and local celebrity YouTuber Amir Hadzic decided to take action and organised a live YouTube chat in order to help out. The social media star managed to collect 18,000 BAM (7,767 GBP) for the little girl in only four hours.
He gave the money to the father but the desperate dad is now looking to raise more funds to pay for his daughter’s transport and recovery treatment for the operation in Turkey.
He told Central European News (CEN): “We collected the money for the surgery thanks to Amir and the good people, but Lamija is in hospital at the moment and she is not ready for transport her condition needs to improve.”
The Turkish doctors are ready to operate on the girl but her condition needs to stabilise before she can travel there. Her dad is now looking to raise the money to transport her to Turkey and told CEN: “I spoke with the doctors in Turkey and they are ready to do the surgery now when we have the money but we still need more.
“The transport, the rehabilitation process the other interventions that she needs to undergo will cost around 45,000 EUR (37,982 GBP). We don’t have that money, I don’t work, my wife works in a hospital, and we need help from people.”
The dad is disabled and only works part-time while his wife works in a local hospital.
The Bosnia and Herzegovina government will not provide money for the treatment upfront but the dad said: “ They told me when the surgery is finished you can bring the results for the surgery and we will try to give you back 30 per cent of the total cost of the expenses for the surgery.”
He is reportedly still willing to sell his kidney to raise funds.
The bank account activated to raise money for little Lamija is still active as the family is unable to pay for the rest of the costs associated with the surgery.
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