ZAGREB, April 1, 2019 - More than 28 million kuna has been collected in fundraisers over the past few days for the treatment of Mila Rončević, a two-year-old girl suffering from a rare type of leukaemia, which is more than the 18 million kuna needed to continue her treatment in the United States, the child's parents told a news conference on Monday.
The child's father, Marin Rončević, noted, however, that due to the latest problems in communication with the hospital for children's diseases in Philadelphia where the child is expected to continue her treatment, her departure for the United States was still not certain.
The father said that "some hiccups have occurred in communication with the hospital" which does not approve of making public the cost of treatment or treatment plans that have not been defined on the basis of medical examinations, adding that he expected the situation to be clearer on Monday evening, when the hospital was expected to inform the family of its conclusions regarding the child's treatment and whether she would be included in its experimental treatment programme.
If everything goes well, the family should leave for Philadelphia on Tuesday, but if that does not happen, the alternative is to seek experimental treatment in Switzerland, where the treatment costs roughly the same as in the US, said Rončević who with his wife called the news conference to thank everyone for their donations and for fund raisers organised over the past few days to collect money for their daughter's treatment.
Rončević also thanked Croatian medical experts Dragan Primorac and Ivan Đikić for their help as well as US Ambassador Robert Kohorst.
More health news can be found in the Lifestyle section.
