APDS - a rare disease that steals breath. Transplant is Stasio's only chance for life❗.

The burden of undefined pain

Recurrent, bloody diarrhea was weakening the body and robbing one-and-a-half-year-old Stasio of his strength. The natural reaction of concerned parents was the need to find out the cause of their son's poor condition. They began an arduous trek through doctors' offices. Consultations, examinations, tests - each attempt to find answers ended in silence. No diagnosis brought rescue. Instead, there was a growing fear - a growing shadow of uncertainty that hinted that something very wrong was destroying their child from the inside.

Sepsis, infections, emaciated body

The year 2023 was a time that can hardly be called anything other than a nightmare. Staś went through five pneumonias - each ending in sepsis and accumulation of fluid in the lungs. Subsequent hospitalizations, constant infections, cachexia.

At some point, the one word that takes every parent's breath away was uttered: cancer. Oncology tests happily ruled it out, but answers were still missing. And the boy was getting weaker.

The body could not defend itself

With time, there was new hope - more specialists, new leads. Pulmonologists diagnosed bronchial dilatation and cirrhosis - consequences of many past infections. However, the results of immunological tests brought the most shocking news: Stas's body is defenseless and does not respond to attacks of infection.
It was decided to start intravenous infusions of immunoglobulins to at least partially support his immunity.

APDS - a diagnosis that falls once in a million

In the fall of 2024, with another infection, doctors noticed enlarged lymph nodes that refused to shrink. It was then that Staś was brought to Cape Hope. There, the final diagnosis was finally made: APDS - an ultra-rare, genetic autoinflammatory disease that affects one child in a million. It slowly destroys the immune system, lungs and internal organs.
This condition requires immediate and radical decisions. The only chance for Stasio is a bone marrow transplant.

Staś does not lose his smile

The boy's strength, during this very difficult time, is that inextinguishable childlike joy, the desire to play and the need to explore the world, which draws the family's thoughts away from this cloudy part of his reality.