When three-year-old Nastya Kuzmina came down with a cold earlier this year, her mother was not, at first, unduly concerned. In Orel, a remote western Russian province hundreds of miles from Moscow, a cold is an annual ritual for children and adults alike in the chilly winter, Elena's cheerful daughter had always been robust and healthy.

But the cold did not go away. It got worse, sucking the energy out of Nastya's tiny body. Within weeks, the bright-eyed toddler who loved reciting poems and drawing dolls' dresses was too weak even to get out of bed.

The local doctor knew something was badly wrong, but could not say for certain what it was. He suspected cancer, but did not, he explained to Nastya's petrified parents, have the facilities he needed to make a proper diagnosis. The family must go to Moscow. Throughout the long and gruelling train journey up country, the family prayed there had been some mistake.



Posted by: Jessica    Source

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