The disease of little Sofija united the entire BiH. A total of 270,000 USD is needed for her treatment at a hospital in Baltimore. There are no borders this time. Help is coming from all sides.
“This means a lot to me and my family. It gives us the strength to believe in what is ahead of us. Many people responded, which surprised us a lot. Sofia started suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia when she was just 4 months old. We started with intensive treatment then. After that, we were on the maintenance therapy at home,” said Vanja Micevic, Sofija’s father.
… but disease got back after a month. Transplantation was unsuccessful. Why is Sofia’s life in the hands of human citizens – and not the entity healthcare? A total of 200,000 BAM is allocated for Sofija from the Health Insurance Fund of the RS.
“We are aware that this is not enough money, because, unfortunately, the expenses for treatments abroad are very high. However, in a situation where the Fund is exclusively financed by the payment of contributions for health insurance that is irregularly paid, we are not able to allocate more money. Thus, we want to remind the public once again that it is necessary to establish a special fund in the RS that would finance the expensive treatments abroad for rare diseases, etc,” as announced from the Fund.
There is the Solidarity Fund in the FBiH, which is intended for abroad treatments for a total of eleven diseases.
“Our priorities are always children,” they said. Federal Institute for Health Insurance does not have contracts with clinics in the US, such as the one in which little Sofia should be treated. In cases where there is no other solution, the only alternative is humanity of our citizens.
“Sofija. She should have a 100 % donor from the very beginning. However, experience shows that the army of people helped to stay alive and well! This little child is maybe even unaware that she unites people in BiH,” said Almir Cehajic Batko.
(Source: N1)
