The woman beat the blood disease and a rare fungal infection

In Kaunas clinics, the woman was diagnosed with acute myeloblastic leukemia, and aggressive treatment for chemotherapy was prescribed. « This disease is one of the fastest progressive and aggressive forms of blood cancer. This results in impaired healthy blood cell production, anemia, general weakness, shortness of breath, and producing too few platelets, causing patients to bleed in the skin. stem cell transplantation, which was done to the patient Eve, ”explained dr. Domas Vaitiekus, Head of Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, Kaunas Clinic Oncology and Hematology Clinic.

The onset of Eve’s disease was commonplace, but then atypical abnormalities in the lungs have emerged during treatment and tests. Soon, new fireplaces were found in a woman’s liver, the spleen, and the left limb’s weakness, paralysis, appeared. « She was unconscious. After computed tomography, multiple fireplaces in the brain were found. We suspected that it could be very rare, for the first time in our practice, a fungal infection of mucormicosis, which requires a specific medicine and does not sell it in Lithuania, » says Lina Nebickiene hematologist. She adds that the vital medicine was quickly obtained, and the woman was treated before and during the bone marrow transplantation.

The doctor is open – the views of the brain, the lungs, the liver looked intimidating. « All doctors seemed to be compatible with life, there was no guarantee that the treatment would be successful, but the medicine was given incredibly good results. After intense treatment, fireplaces decreased, disappeared and the disease eventually reached remission.

Photo of Kaunas Clinics

In Kaunas clinics, Eve was successfully performed by bone marrow transplantation. A woman was found an ideal donor from Poland, giving her a bone marrow. « There was a high risk that fungal infection could be activated again, as a strong chemotherapy is prescribed before the transplant. After transplantation, we were most afraid of various infections because after transplanting new cells, a person is immune for a while, donor cells can fight the body’s cells, which is even necessary. Ignas Gaidamavičius, a hematologist of Kaunas Clinic Oncology and Hematology Clinic, said during the treatment of stem cell transplantation.

The woman had to endure 5 stages of chemotherapy, many complications, a difficult period after the transplant, after which the Eve’s mouth was in the mouth, was allowed to relieve pain. It took as many as 53 donor blood throughout the treatment period. « During this period I only cried once. Although I knew it would be very difficult and that the disease was fatal, I believed I would get lost. I believed in medicine, doctors. The biggest motivation in this fight was my son, to whom I am the whole world.

She thanks all the doctors of Kaunas clinics, nurses, nurses’ assistants who heal, listened, and enveloped attention and patience. « Their knowledge, professionalism and everyday concern helped me endure it all and gave me a new opportunity to live. I am alive, I am happy with life. It is a miracle. I am indescribably grateful to them, » Eve gritted.

According to dr. D. Vaitiekus, transplantation gives patients 80-90 %. a chance of recovery. « Eve will have to take special medicines for another half or a year. They are used until the donor and the recipient are ‘friends’. We have quite a few patients who are not taking medication, work hard, live a full life, ”says a hematologist.

There are two main types of transplantation – autologous (stem cells are collected from the patient himself) and allogeneous (stem cells are derived from a donor). In Kaunas clinics, autologous stem cell transplantation was first performed in 2015. The hospital also carries out allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplants. In total, more than 400 autologous and allogeneous stem cell transplants have already been performed in Kaunas clinics.