Dear Friends & Family,

As many of you know we traveled to China on 23 of April for long awaited Stem Cell treatment.

Unfortunately during pre-treatment MRI test on Ittai’s brain Doctors noticed a small abnormality on his frontal lob. Following more tests, MRI’s and CT Scans our fears were confirmed. Ittai has a benign tumor on his frontal lob. The good news are that it is small and operable. Following those devastating news we decided to return home and treat this ASAP.

According to the Chinese Neurologists we will be able to come back for Stem Cell treatment within 6 to 12 month after successful removal of this tumor. We meeting Ittai’s doctors first thing Monday morning and hope that the operation will be done as soon as possible without any complications.

Besides the bad news, we really enjoyed the care and treatment Ittai received in Puhua Hospital, we saw other patients and witnessed the miracle of Stem Cell treatment. This trip reassured us that out efforts to give Ittai a better chance in life are right and Stem Cells treatment is the only way he can have a better quality of life.

We are still shocked and devastated by the news and the way we found out about it, however if we wouldn’t have traveled to China we might have never known about this tumor until it was too late.

Thank you all for your help and support which allowed us to get to China. We managed to save most of the money donated for Ittai’s treatment and will be using it for Stem Cells treatment next year.

Thank you all  again.

Some pictures we took during our short visit to China:

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Hi All,

We would like to thank Kids For Life for all their help and support raising money for Ittai’s treatment in China.

We have reached our goal of $40,000 and are planning to be in China in the next couple of weeks.

Once again thank you all for all your donations and support.

Hi All,

We have great news to share with you. We have reached our target of $40,000 for Ittai’s treatment in China and started organising our trip.

We will take Ittai for treatment in the next couple of month and hopefully it will change his life.

Thank you all for your contribution and stay tuned for updates of our trip and Ittai’s quest for a better life.

Cheers

Great Article about Cerebral Palsy trial treatment with Stem Cells. This article reassures our decision to take Ittai to China for Stem Cell treatment  as soon as possible.

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health-fitness/cerebral-palsy-breakthrough/story-fneuzlbd-1226565375410

Hi All,

Happy New Year!

Just a quick update:

Ittai had a few set backs since the new year with random viruses making him very sick and after a few weeks of taking antibiotics he finally feeling better.

Our fundraising efforts slowed down in the New Year, but are still on track. We’ve raised $31,991 and not very far from our target.

Ittai’s friends at Kids For Life kindly agreed to continue matching dollar for dollar on all donations until out target is reached. So all donations will continue to be doubled and, for Australia residents are  tax deductible.

Thank you all for generous donations.

We will publish some new photos ASAP.

Keep tuned.

Happy New year

We’ve raised additional $822 and with Kids For Live Matching it’s additional $1,644.

All in total we have $30,051.

Thank you all for generous donations.

Hi All,

We had an overwhelming response from many people who want to help Ittai get a better chance in Life.

So far we have raised $2,722 and with Kids For Live matching it we have raise $5,444 in just 6 days.

All in total we have $28,407 and not far away from our target.

Please keep reposting Ittai’s message everywhere you can.

Once again thank you all generous donations and support.

We wish you all Happy and safe  Holidays.

From Oren, Inna, Ittai and Aviv

In August Ittai has a received a great gift from his supporters Lions Club Maroubra.

Lions Club had funded a specialised walking frame called Kid Walk. He loves to walk around and when he is tired he just loves hanging out in it.

Thank you for making Ittai’s live a little more exciting.

At the end of April 2012 Ittai suffered a major set back in his development.

He lost his baby sucking reflex, but he can’t chew and can’t properly swallow.

This means that he is not able to eat and has to be fed via feeding tube to survive.

Initially the doctors inserted a nasal tube which was very uncomfortable and very slow way to feed him. It was so uncomfortable that Ittai, despite being virtually quadriplegic, managed to pull it out several times a week. Each time he pulled it out meant another trip to the hospital to insert it back.

Finally on the 8th of June, thanks to Ittai’s gastroenterologist, who managed to schedule out of hours emergency gastrostomy surgery to insert a feeding tube directly into his stomach.

The operation was successful, however Ittai is one of a few that has an issue with accepting a foreign object in his abdomen and has a great difficulty in healing.

Since the operation the little feeding peg in his abdomen was changed a several time due to infection and inflammation of the area around it.

Today is nearly 6 month after the operation and it is still not healed properly. We hoping that a stem cell treatment will help Ittai eat normally or at least will help him to heal.