Margareta Lovkovic
Croatia
Hub Leader
My name is Margareta and my gastro warrior is Antonija. We live in Croatia, a small country in Europe. Our gastroschisis story begins with Antonija’s birth on September 28th 2014. She was a full term breech baby and born via induction. I had 11 ultrasound scans during my pregnancy, but her gastroschisis remained undetected until she was born.
She was urgently transported to our capital city, Zagreb, and had her closure surgery. She had some serious complications, changed 3 hospitals, had 6 big surgeries and 3 smaller ones. In the end, she ended up with short bowel syndrome. She was hospitalized for the first 2 years of her life and TPN dependent until her 3rd birthday. She has been TPN free since 14th October 2017. Currently, she is eating normally by day and is on continuous enteral feeds at nights via her Mic-Key button.
Except for her special feeding, she is a normal child with a normal immune system, smaller in size but intelligent and very empathetic. She goes to the regular elementary school and keeps her grades high. She is a loving and caring person to her baby sisters and friends in school. She is motivated to educate people about gastroschisis, she likes to do presentations and talk about her experiences.
I’m very honored to be part of The Global Gastroschisis Foundation and raising Gastroschisis Awareness with the help of this wonderful team, not just in my native country, but also in the other Balkan countries. I was very lucky to meet amazing gastro families from Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and that I am part of their journeys.
______________________________________________
Ja sam Margareta, a moja gastro djevojcica zove se Antonija. Zivimo u Hrvatskoj, maloj drzavi u Europi. Nase gastro-putovanje pocinje 28.9.2014. godine, kada se Antonija. Bila je terminska beba, postavljena na zadak, a porod je bio induciran. Iako sam bila na 11 ultrazvucnih pregleda tijekom trudnoce, gastroshiza je kod Antonije otkrivena tek po porodu.
Hitno je prevezena u nas glavni grad, Zagreb, gdje je odmah operirana. Zatim je razvila ozbiljne komplikacije, promijenila 3 bolnice, imala 6 velikih operacija i 3 manje. Ostala je na 40 cm tankog crijeva, 2/3 debelog i bez ileocekalne valvule. Zavrsila je s dijagnozom sindroma kratkog crijeva. Prve 2 godine svog zivota provela je hospitalizirana, a na parenteralnoj prehrani je bila do svojeg treceg rodjendana. Oslobodila se parenteralne prehrane 14.10.2017. godine. Danas jede normalno preko dana, dok je preko noci spojena na enteralnu pumpu, pri cemu se kontinuirano hrani putem zelucane sonde.
Osim sto se hrani na poseban nacin, ona je normalno dijete, s normalnim imunitetom, sitnije gradje, ali vrlo empaticna i inteligentna. Ide u redovnu skolu i prolazi s odlicnim uspjehom. Vrlo je brizna prema svojim prijateljima u skoli i prema svojim mladjim sestrama. Motivirana je drzati prezentacije, govoriti i educirati ljude o gastroshizi i svojim iskustvima.
Osjecam se pocasceno sto sam dio The Global Gastroschisis Foundation i sto dizem svijest o gastroshizi uz pomoc ovog predivnog tima, i to ne samo u svojoj zemlji, vec i u okolnim zemljama. Imala sam tu srecu upoznati nevjerojatne obitelji iz Hrvatske, Srbije, Crne Gore, Makedonije, Slovenije, Bosne i Hercegovine te postati dio njihovih gastro-putovanja.