Monika Simkova Needs Us
The UB volleyball player is in dire condition. Let's step up.
Image from UBBulls.com
The UB In 5 community is small, but folks, please take note of this important story.
From Rachel Lenzi of The Buffalo News:
Simkova, a 6-foot-2 outside hitter from Malacky, Slovakia, was ready for her third college season. At the beginning of August, she showed symptoms akin to having a cold or the flu, but insisted she felt fine. She began to feel worse, and coach Scott Smith and his staff rushed her to Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital in Williamsville. Simkova’s condition deteriorated while she was at the hospital, even as doctors and nurses treated her.
Simkova hasn’t left a hospital since then. She is now at Buffalo General Medical Center, recovering from a streptococcal bacterial infection. Simkova’s sister, Lucia Michalovicova, wrote this week on a social media post that Simkova’s condition worsened after she turned septic, which resulted in multiple organ failure.
Simkova underwent a double amputation of her legs, each above the knee, to increase her chances of survival and long-term recovery, Michalovicova wrote on Instagram. Simkova has a feeding tube threaded through her nose and to her stomach to help with sustenance, she is fighting pneumonia and a fungal infection in a leg wound, and bacteria remains in her bloodstream, her sister wrote.
There is an active GoFundMe to help Simkova and her family. Her sister, Lucia, writes:
It's been five long weeks since Monika was admitted to the hospital, and in those five weeks she has had seven surgeries. For these five weeks, she has been fighting unbelievably hard to stay here with us. She has been through so much, too much for one person to endure in life. But she is a fighter, she has the full admiration not just from me but from the whole MICU unit. Her body may be weak and fragile but her mind and motivation to live is made of steel.
Rehabilitation is the next step but before then she needs to recover from the illness. She continues to fight a bacterial infection in her blood, a fungus in her leg wound, and pneumonia in her lungs. Unable to eat on her own, she’s still using a feeding tube down her nose to the stomach.
Monika is a continuing to improve each and every day. Being able to sit up in bed, sucking on an ice chip and being able to swallow water down her throat is massive progress. Things we take for granted are life changing moments for Monika.
As an international student-athlete living overseas in the United States, Monika is still aiming to finish her Psychology degree while getting the best care possible here in the US. I will be staying by her side away from my home in Australia for the unforeseeable future, so in addition to funding Monika’s medical and rehabilitation procedures, the money raised through this GoFundMe page will also be used to help to support me as Monika’s primary caregiver.
Every day is a step back into life away from hospital walls. Facing new challenges, understanding what the new normal is going to be like for her and looking for moments which bring us joy from being alive.
Please consider donating. Thank you very much for your time.