"Do you know how to love 840 gr.? They love each other with a clenched heart and gritted teeth. No questions, no plans, no dreams, no expectations."

We are the Marinov family. Our son Alexander was born at 26 weighing 840g after a wonderful 6 months of pregnancy and 6 nightmare days of medical errors and negligence. The child was born in outpatient conditions, in an ambulance without equipment and was left for nearly 10 minutes without neonatal care and oxygen. For him, life began unexpectedly early, and for us, the whole world turned upside down. After 75 days in a cubicle and 1 month in a nursing home, he was discharged to go home with a fragile 2,100 grams. At 18 months the expected diagnosis of cerebral palsy spastic quadriparesis was confirmed. What followed was 7 years of home care, rehabilitation, swimming, speech therapy, and hippotherapy to work on spastic muscle development.

Now, 7 years later, after all the gloomy doctor's predictions that nothing would come of this baby, that he would not talk, see or walk because of the two brain haemorrhages, Alex talks, thinks, recites, sings, has an independent (unstable) sitting posture, attempts to feed himself, but that is as far as his capabilities go. He is unable to walk independently and attend to himself. He has attended kindergarten and now school with an aide.

Our family's hope is for the child to have an independent gait, to be able to get around on his own at home and school. Our hope is that when we are gone, he will be able to handle challenges ALONE!

After 6 years of rehabilitation at the Children's Hospital in Varna and parallel 2 years at Karin Home, also 2 surgeries - fibrotomy in Czupriya, Serbia, our last hope is SDR (Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy) surgery at the Children's Hospital of St. Louis, Missouri, USA. For it we need funds 45000 USD for the surgery itself, 6500 USD for splints on both legs and aids, and 10000 to 15000 USD for orthopedic surgery (the last amount will be clear on the spot if it will be needed).