Rain of shrapnel took my legs, but I saved my daughter: Vesna, hero mom from 99 bombing now battling cancer

For Vesna Stojkovic (53), each April 5 means reliving the biggest trauma of her life. Tears well up in her eyes, and she herself doesn't know where she gets the strength to deal with her difficult fate.

Namely, this woman from Vranje starts every spring with the memory of the NATO bombing of Serbia that left a special mark on her body - a rain of shrapnel took away her legs, and would have killed her daughter if she had not thrown herself over the child to protect her.

With a trembling voice, she tells us again this year how she found herself scared, in the middle of the street, at the very moment NATO bombers targeted homes near the bus station in Vranje.

"My daughter and I went for a walk and were across the street from the barracks, it happened without warning or alarm, when the first bomb fell I was thrown away. When it blasted, I just thought, I have to cover her (the daughter) with my body. Then the detonation hit me and I was thrown away, and the child fell out of my arms. I had 7 fractured ribs, my lung tissue burst. A shrapnel cut my thumb. There was a reservist at the gate and I called to him to save my child. While I was lying helpless, I watched him run away with rifle in one hand and my daughter in the other," Vesna recounts her ordeal, visibly shaken.

When she woke up in the hospital, that was the last memory she had, but still she did not know where her daughter was, and that fact filled her with even more fear. In pain, she asked to be released from the hospital so that she could go search for baby Marija and calm herself at least a little.

"They transferred me home to the basement, but my daughter was still not there. According to the reservist's story, he asked a woman to take her over because he was also injured. Then they passed the child literally from hand to hand and she ended up in a neighborhood building and we only found her in the evening. She was also injured, bleeding, an had a hematoma on her little head," explains the Vranje woman.

However, peace did not last long. Her toe was stitched up, but the pain continued, and she learned that she had gangrene. Vesna had to undergo amputation, but bad fate did not stop there either, she received more bad news.

"Less than a year after the amputation, I got two autoimmune diseases, and since this summer, my condition has suddenly worsened. I also have colon tumor and I am currently on biological therapy," says Vesna, adding that the complications are endless. Given that she has lost 14 kilograms, her leg protheses are now too large, and it will cost around 8,000 euros to fix them.

Good people have helped her so far through the via the "Budi Human" organization, however, the money for the treatment has been raised, but not for the accommodation, and as she tells us, just one day costs 50 euros. If she didn't have a granddaughter, she doesn't know what would push her through life. She dreams of playing with her, laughing and enjoying... To walk in the park and run while holding hands, but the realization of Vesna's dream depends on all of us.

"Only my little one gives me strength and nothing else. Unfortunately, my thoughts are black, I am bed-ridden and this is psychologically, a very strong blow," she concludes.

We can help Vesna Stojkovic by making a donation to her account: 160-6000000805434-17

(Telegraf.rs)