Through my trip to Croatia, I was made aware of a 10 year old Roma Gypsy boy in a refugee camp in Montenegro. He has life-threatening scoliosis. A group of us – some in the US, some in England, some in Croatia – are trying to get him over to the US for life-saving surgery. The bureaucracy we’re meeting up with is pretty crazy, though. Due to the fact that his mom never registered him when he was born (which is probably true of a large number of the Roma children) and to the fact that he’s a refugee, the only identification he has is his refugee card. It’s hard to get a passport and visa when you don’t have papers. We’re trying to help with this, but it’s taking precious time.
On this end, a chiropractor by the name of Dr. John Rattcliffe has just gotten a copy of Vedat’s x-rays and will be speaking to several surgeons to line up one who can do the surgery pro bono. There are a couple of hospitals in the area which will most likely be willing to offer their facilities pro bono since the situation is rather desperate. This is taking some time to line up, too, though, and we don’t know how much longer Vedat can live with his organs being crushed.
Anyone who’s reading this and can send up a prayer for Vedat and his family, please do. Pray that the doctors will be able to help him, that all of this preparation will go quickly and smoothly, and that he will survive until we can get him help.