Happy Birthday ViktorSarajevo is plastered with posters demanding, "Koliko je troje srce?"
How big is your heart?
It seems there is a little blue-eyed boy not quite 6 who is dying of a hideous form of cancer, neroblastoma. His mother and family is trying to raise $300,000 with which they can purchase an operation in Germany that might save him.
I know. You've heard a million of these appeals, so many, they've lost their appeal. All little blue-eyed bald sick babes began to look alike. I always hated how at newspapers we stopped running those stories of families trying to raise money for operations and treatments that might or might not save their children's lives. People stopped reading, giving dropped off. I was always so grateful for healthy kids -- and health insurance.
But Viktor seems to have become an obsession. Besides the posters, trucks carrying big signs and recorded messages: Pomozimo malom Viktoru! Help little Viktor! go up and down the streets. Newspapers run long articles and pictures, there's a slick and massive web site. We went to the zoo today where you bought a 1 KM ticket to get in that was donated to Viktor and inside little kids sat under trees drawing pictures to send to Viktor on his birthday.
In a city that lost so many children I wonder what is so special about this one.I wondered who is the PR genius behind this campaign. I wonder why the Germans wouldn't just do the operation and forget about money. I wonder how any operation can cost $300,000.
Amid my wonder I bought 10 tickets and spent an afternoon in the zoo.
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1 comment:
I could definitely see how an operation would cost $300,000 knowing the medical industry! However, it's a great story of collective compassion that just might save this kids life...a movement that shows the real value of human life and something I wish was more understood everywhere else.
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