It started with tingling in the fingers and limbs. Today, Martina is fighting for a normal life

Martina is the mother of ten-year-old Vojta and seven-year-old Magdalénka. At the end of last year, the until then vital woman noticed that her fingers were beginning to tingle, and subsequently her entire upper and lower limbs. But she attributed everything to a lack of vitamins or stress. Within ten days, however, she became a bedridden patient with a serious neurological diagnosis for which no one yet knows a cure.

Martina was an active mother until recently. However, the disease confined her to bed.

| Photo: Courtesy of Daniel Kříž

WHAT YOU WILL READ IN THE ARTICLE

Martina Křížová is a mother of two. Together with her husband Daniel Kříž, she is raising two children, whom she has always treated with respect and according to the principles of contact parenting. Suddenly, however, her fingers began to tingle, then her palms, and then her lower limbs.

At first she thought it was nothing, but it soon turned out to be the first symptom of a very serious neurological disease for which there is no cure. Within moments, Martina became a bedridden patient who is fully dependent on the care of others. Day by day, she was forced to separate from her family and start spending all her free time in the ICU, hospitals, and a rehabilitation center. She works out as much as she can, but her body still doesn’t listen to her like everyone would like.

It started with tingling in the limbs

Martina Křížová was a healthy woman until November 2023, and there was no indication that she should be confined to bed in the following days due to a serious diagnosis. The only thing she noticed was that her fingers began to tingle slightly, later also in her palms and wrists. Sometimes the tingling also moved to the lower limbs. But she attributed the tingling in the limbs to a lack of vitamins, iron or stress, which every working parent experiences to some extent.

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“Martina has always been an active and vital mother who promoted a healthy lifestyle both in diet and in the choice of shoes and clothes for children. She actively spread awareness about wearing babies in headscarves and contact parenting as such. She regularly donated blood plasma and was registered as a bone marrow donor. That’s how everyone knew her. Full of energy, with a smile on her face, always friendly and positive,” says Daniel Kříž about his wife in the collection for Donio, which he founded for her in order to give her a better life.

A serious disease for which there is no cure

Within ten days, however, everything turned upside down and Martina had to be hospitalized in neurology with a serious and incurable diagnosis – the rarest form of Guillain-Barré syndrome AMSAN (Acute Motor Sensory Axonal Neuropathy).

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is a serious autoimmune disease affecting the peripheral nervous system. It is usually caused by an acute infectious process. It is a relatively rare disease that is diagnosed in 0.16 to 4 people per 100,000 inhabitants per year,” says doctor Jan Tomčík from the 1st Neurological Clinic of the University Hospital at St. Anna in Brno. The disease is manifested by paralysis, which has an upward tendency, starting with weakness in the legs, which, however, spreads to the upper limbs and face.

“Currently, there is no specific cure for this disease. The disease is treated by plasmapheresis (a procedure in which a certain part is separated from the blood and the rest is returned to the body, editor’s note) and the application of immunoglobulins. Within a few days, widespread sepsis spread from the inserted catheters needed to exchange Martina’s plasma throughout her body. The treatment was immediately terminated and Martina was transferred to the ICU, where she spent the next ten days,” Martina’s husband Daniel describes the situation.

After being released from the ICU, Martina spent another month in the hospital, and in January 2024 she was transferred to a rehabilitation institution, where she remains to this day.

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“Martina is seriously ill and confined to a wheelchair. She has not been home with us since November, although we hoped she would be back soon. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen,” confides the husband via social networks.

Dependent not on the care of others

Martina is undergoing intensive rehabilitation in a rehabilitation institution, but according to her husband, she is only partially successful. Her legs and arms still do not work, so she is confined to a mechanical wheelchair. She is completely dependent on the care and help of others. In addition, she had short-term memory lapses and long-term memory problems.

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“When Martina and I got married, we promised each other that we would be together through thick and thin. But slowly I don’t know where to go anymore. According to the last report from the doctors, Martina is not able to act independently or sign. But I refused the offer to be placed in institutional care. We would all suffer,” says husband Daniel with respect for his wife.

Martina needs support

Daniel lives with his wife and children in a rented apartment, but Martina cannot return to it after her release from the rehabilitation institution. Due to its condition, the apartment is completely unsuitable for her in terms of composition and space.

“The selected contributions will be used for the purchase of own housing and its adaptation to handicap accessibility. But also to ensure assistance care for Martina during our absence (school, work). The help will allow us to focus on taking care of Martina and ensure as normal a life as possible for our children,” shares Daniel Kříž’s plan for how he will deal with the collected money.

More than 3,300 people have already joined the collection, who have so far donated more than 1.3 million crowns to the family. You can donate on the Donio platform through a collection called Martina – the fight for a normal life any amount until mid-June.

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