Hello.

I am 71 years old, and my state pension is quite low, at €726.90.

I do not need the financial support for myself, but for my seriously ill daughter, a mother of two children.

My Jarka is 37 years old, a single mother of two children, and has been in a persistent vegetative state since 12 February 2022. She is at home, and I look after her on my own. No specialist doctor examines or monitors her. We have only seen a neurologist twice; otherwise, there is no rehabilitation specialist, gastroenterologist, surgeon or pulmonologist. In Slovakia, such a patient is considered surplus to requirements.

How did all this happen?

Jarka, a pretty young woman, was unlucky in love.

Her first partner beat her, so she didn’t get married and remained a single mother; then, a few years later, she had a son, Tobias (2018), with her partner Ivan.

During the Covid pandemic, she lost another child; she had a premature birth with significant health complications. What’s more, she nearly burned to death in her car.

After her second bout of Covid, a tragedy literally struck. Although she was at home with her partner, he was unable to help her when she choked on her tea until she stopped breathing. She was taken to the intensive care unit, and it was only by a miracle that her life was saved, but she remained in a conscious coma. And even in hospital in this condition, she contracted Covid for the third time. Due to poor care in hospital, she also suffered from pressure sores and infectious diarrhoea.

It has been more than four years.

I look after and care for her limp body myself. But with love. All the money she receives as a disabled person is spent on physiotherapy, massage and, most recently, animal-assisted therapy.

We don’t have a clinic in Slovakia for treating patients like this.

At the same time, I am personally looking after Jarka’s two children.

Dianka is now 19, a sixth-former at grammar school, and 8-year-old Tobias, who is in Year 1 and, sadly, autistic.

Jarka really needs transport, for example, to a hyperbaric centre (130 km away). This requires multiple visits. It was risky in an ambulance, as we often travelled with other patients with various diagnoses. There was a risk of hepatitis infection; she was being treated for pneumonia. We had to stop the hyperbaric treatment.

The state won’t help with a vehicle for people who are unable to move, but on the other hand, it would help me with vehicle modifications.

We really need to buy a van, even a second-hand one, but it must not be more than five years old.

That is why I am appealing for support from kind-hearted people.

Please help us with a contribution towards the necessary vehicle.

Thank you,

Helena Kišová