Euthanasia for Cristi

Povestea lui Cristi - scrisa de Adelina Cristi's story - written by Adelina
Diagnosticul lui Cristi Cristi's Diagnosis
Conturile in care se pot face donatii Open acccunts for donations

 

Cristi was born at the Municipal Hospital of Constanta on the 14th of March 2001. He was an unwanted baby. Born prematurely and with a heart malformation, this baby was abandoned after three weeks of his birth in the Intensive Therapy wing of the hospital in Constanta. Even the doctors were not very optimistic - the child could not live with this malformation more than a month. Then they thought that he would not live more than two months, then six months, then they decided: the baby will be dead before his first birthday. But Cristi did not die and then they put another term : a year and a half, maybe two. But Cristi went on and continued his little life between the beds of the same wing of the hospital where he was abandoned.

He slowly learned the hours when they did admitting, the nurses and the doctor's names, he learned the treatments of every child passing through the Intensive Therapy wing. The date of his hospital release never came. The doctors, by law, contacted the mother of the baby, but she refused to see him, even though a year after she abandoned Cristi she gave birth to a girl in the same hospital, just a floor below the place where her son was fighting for his life.

In the meantime his heart was getting weaker. Trips to Bucharest and Timisoara took place and then back to Constanta to the Intensive Therapy wing. Then they heard of this baby at Cluj. There someone decided to put him in the spotlight, so Cristi was on the front page of the newspaper in constanta for few months. This is how I found out about him.


Cristi and Adelina

We met in September. A head with blond hair on the other side of the grills of his metal crib. I found out about his illness and I started the trips. The doctors in Constanta told me that the boy is being evaluated at Cluj for a surgery. So I made my first trip to Cluj. After few hours of waiting in front of the pediatrician's office( I would not rather give his name) I told him that I was there for Cristi.

The answer- I will never forget it- was: " If it is the child that I think it is, I already told the doctors in Constanta that nothing can be done for him. This child had to be operated on the first days of his life. Now NOTHING can be done". I insisted for him to be seen and finally they agreed, so then after few days we were on our way to Cluj traveling in a frozen Ambulance. They released him after few days because a group of American doctors will come to Cluj and maybe they will have a better opinion. 

Back to Constanta. We became dependant on each other. I was "his Adenina". Then another trip to Cluj. The american doctors arrived. They consulted him, they adored him and they told us that their answer will cone in January. That Christmas I had him at home. He alone was our celebration.

Then the answer came from Cluj: Cristi could be operated on by the American doctors. I felt that it had to happen, that every day was worth living just for a moment like this. But in the meantime Cristi's health situation became worse and when he arrived at Cluj he had high fever and he was breathing heavily. They transferred him at the Children's Hospital where they treated him with antibiotics and he started to feel better. But he surgery fell through! And then the doctors maybe remembered that they are very good at predicting. They told me that they did not intend to operate on Cristi, that they brought him there for some tests and they gave me a sound advice: to give up on this child because it is not a child that will live. Because he can't be operated on, he could live only 3, 4, 5, years and then he will perish.

And then I remembered the stray dogs! Sure! And then I did not understand how come they did not think of it sooner. Euthanasia. It is the best answer for Cristi. Euthanasia, Maybe it had to be done long ago, then at three weeks of life when ANYWAYS THEY KNEW THAT HE WILL NOT LIVE MORE THAN A MONTH! But this time they were more generous! Three, four, five years! Why wait that long? After all he is just an abandoned child.

But he has blond hair and when he laughs he tilts his head on the side and laughs with his entire face. He tells me that I am "baba" and "mos" and then "Thief". And then he says no "Adenina is not a Thief". And then he laughs again. And then he kisses me loudly on my nose and on my forehead, then he forgets about me and he looks in my pockets for my cell phone. I have two. He does not like one of them. He wants only the one "little and red". The other one he says that it is "broken". one day he told me that he asked Santa to bring him yogurt. He can have yogurt! Because it has no salt. I can't write anymore because I am crying.

For all the people that know that Cristi will not live, for all of them that did euthanasia him long ago..., I don't know - pray for them because they don't know what they are doing!

Adelina Toncean, February 14, 2004