Dmytro Svichynskyi-Vstygnemo

On July 15, 2021, a historic event took place at the The Children's Hospital of San Antonio - Dmytro Svichynskyi, a Ukrainiany baby boy, received an injection of Zolgensma, an innovative gene therapy drug that helps cure the deadly Spinal Muscle Atrophy type 1 disease. One shot of Zolgensma costs 2.1 million dollars!

The Svichinskys were overwhelmed with happinness their son was able to receive the lifesaving Zolgensma injection. The road to this day was long and it took a whole lot of people, persisentce, and unwavering belief to make this come true.

A month after Dmytro was born his parents noticed that he completely lost his ability to move and later received deverstating diagnoses of #SMA type 1, the deadly genetic disease that leads to more than 90 % of children dying before they reach the age of two.

Look and remember the faces of these young parents because they are not only the faces of loving and caring parents but also faces of socially conscious Ukrainian citizens. They managed not only to unite the efforts of the whole country to raise funds to buy a drug but also started a public movement of Діти my vstyhnemo, which draws attention to the lack of funding for the purchase of such life saving drugs at the state level in Ukraine.

Following the Zolgensma shot, Dmytro will spend several months in San Antonio for a rehabilation. Vitaly and Maria Svichynskyi are very thankful to everyone who donated time and money to save their son!

P.S. In 2020, the drug Zolgensma got to the Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive medicine in the world!