Paul died on 30 of April 2001 in Triesta's hospital (Italy) from hepatitis after the bone marrow transplantation.

The operation of bone marrow transplantation from partly compatible donor - his mother - was successful. But weak constitution of the boy didn't let him to come through the illness of hepatitis.

The Alubaev family is Christian orthodox (not only nominal).Whole period since 1998 (when the lymphoma was diagnosed) Paul had intinctions in hospital, at home, then in hospital again. Olga Stiopkina - the doctor who treated and prepared the boy for the transplantation - remembers:

"When I saw him for the first time at the inspection room, he looked at me, unknown woman, showed me an icon and said:
"I have my angel!.."

PHOTO'S of PAUL

On 22 July, 2000 Paul's parents, Roman and Oksana, have brought their son to our department since he has felt worse. At 12 in the noon the diagnosis was made: the relapse of the B-cell lymphoma after the remission that lasted for 2.5 years. It is a very rear case, because after two years of remission this kind of lymphoma almost never leads to recurrence. But Paul was not among the lucky ones.

The tragedy of the situation is in the fact that there is still no technology to treat the B-cell lymphoma when recurrence happens. There is the only solution for the problem - the TRANSPLANTATION OF BONE MARROW.

5 September 2000. Paul undergoes the preparatory chemotherapy before the transplantation. The therapy goes successfully. His parents are looking for the possibilities and finances to make an operation.

If the donor transplantation is needed, the father of the boy might be the potential donor of the bone marrow.

1 November 2000. The money for an operation in an Italian clinic in Trieste has been found! They were found by Father Dominic, a Catholic priest from a Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. For two months he was in touch with that clinic regarding our children who needed transplantation and was pleading with them to respond and to lend a helping hand. He did everything he could. As a consequence, Paul’s parents’ request has been heard.

At the moment we do not know all the details, as well as the source of money, but we will update you as soon as we get this information.

Paul went quite well through induction treatment and went into his second remission. The Italian doctors have told Oksana Alubaeva on the phone that they evaluate the chances for success as very high.

The departure of Paul and his mother to Italy is set preliminarily for middle December.

1 December 2000. Whenever Paul’s parents and we ask Father Dominick who is paying for the boy’s treatment, Father Dominick determinedly keeps silent. However, in a telephone conversation with the Italian clinics we discovered that the payment would be made by the Vatican. In fact it will be not just a fixed amount of money, but the donator is willing to cover the full treatment that the boy will need. The clinics will arrange a specialist to keep contact with the donor.

Paul has just finished another section of the induction treatment of high-dose polio-chemotherapy before he can undergo transplantation.

22 December 2000. Paul was taken to the Isolation Ward! 10 days ago he finished induction treatment before an operation and was discharged from hospital so that he and his mother could set off for Italy where bone marrow transplantation had already been scheduled. And now this chickenpox… Both Paul and his mother (!) already had it 2 years ago when they first came to our department! This is a picture of Paul covered in green antiseptic, which was made at that time.

4 February 2001. Paul and his parents have already spent a month in one of the Italian clinics. We are waiting for the news.

20 March 2001. We have received a letter from Italy!

Dear colleague,

Pavel Abulaev was submitted to a bone marrow transplant from the mismatched mother. He had a complete engraftment, but unfortunately the C hepatitis that he had before transplant worsened. Now he has high bilirubin and transaminases, in treatment with ribavirin.

Best regards,
Dr.Marino Andolina

30 April 2001...