GABI, THE GIRL WITH A FEARLESS HEART

Gabrijela Buljić is 13 years old. She is an excellent 7th grade student and lives in Dugo Selo. Her hobby is singing, and her greatest wish in life is to be able to run down the street without stopping, without fear or fatigue.

That wish will probably never come true because this smiling 13-year-old, who at first glance is like all her peers, suffers from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a congenital heart defect that causes her heart to sometimes beat up to 300 times per minute.

If she didn't have a defibrillator implanted in her abdomen, which "shocks" Gabriela at the moment of a seizure, causing her to lose consciousness due to her rapid heartbeat, she could die due to the illness she has.

Loses consciousness during a seizure

Gabriela's illness began long before she was born and was written in her genes. My late mother-in-law, Ogor, and Gabriela's mother Mihaela, who died from her first and only seizure when Gabriela was less than two years old, both suffered from the same diagnosis - recalls her father Dražen Buljić (41) of the moments that marked his life. Perhaps everything would have been different if Mihaela had had a defibrillator implanted. In any case, her passing was a warning that everyone in the family suffering from this incurable disease should have this device implanted - added Dražen. Gabriela had her first device implanted when she was five years old. Since then, she has had six surgeries and changed three defibrillators.

His wife Mihaela, Gabriela's mother, was diagnosed with the disease when she was seven years old, but her illness also did not manifest itself and there were no visible complications. She went for regular check-ups, worked, got married, got pregnant and gave birth to Gabriela in 2003.
"We found out about Gabi's illness before she was born, but we did not know it would be in this form. Since my wife was diagnosed during her pregnancy, she was checked by Dr. Malčić and it was discovered that Gabi had two holes in her heart (VSD). We assumed that they would close by her first birthday without surgery," says Dražen.
However, when Gabi was nine months old, the disease took a different turn and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy developed, and it became completely clear that genetics had not bypassed Gabriela. We continued relatively normally, we lived our lives, went for check-ups, and then that unfortunate day of July 25, 2005 happened. On that day, my wife Mihaela passed away due to her first, only, and last seizure - says Dražen, who at the age of 30 was left alone with his daughter.

She passed away four days before her 26th birthday, and little Gabi didn't get to celebrate her second birthday with her mom.
"Suddenly everything changed. At that moment, it was necessary to keep a clear head and see what to do next. At one point, we had everything, we were looking forward to our annual vacation in Makarska, and then... you have nothing left," Dražen says wistfully.
He had the full support of his late wife's family.
"Gabi didn't have any problems at that time. It may sound ugly, but she gets used to living with it... at least in periods without an attack, and when it comes, alas, she never knows what and how. She relies on the machine, and then it goes through her head that at least Mihaela had one... - says Dražen.

Somehow, with Mihaela's death, the disease began to manifest itself in the others as well. And what What happened to her was a serious warning to the doctors that they needed to take care of Gabriela, her uncle and grandmother. It was immediately decided to implant an electrocardioconverter (defibrillator) in everyone. Namely, the disease manifests itself in the form of uncontrolled heartbeats, which can be more than 300 beats and which are, unfortunately, fatal.
"Dr. Malčić suggested the implantation because the defibrillator reacts and restores normal heart rhythm. It is a device that is inserted into the abdomen and is connected to the heart by electrodes. The device was implanted in Grandma and Uncle shortly after Mihaela's death, and in Gabi two years later" - says Dražen and admits that he was skeptical because Gabi was still young. She was not even five years old, but he decided to listen to the doctor's recommendation.
"Thank God I did, because if I hadn't, God knows it wouldn't have been good" - says Dražen with relief. Gabi, in fact, suffered a seizure in 2010, and the device saved her life. Since then, the seizures have occurred frequently. And then the operations began. Six of them, four in Zagreb and two in Munich.

The brace brings her back to life

And Gabriela's first attack was deeply etched in her memory.
"I was seven years old, I didn't know anything about my illness, and I didn't care. However, I don't care even today because when I think about it, I just get scared. Basically, I ran home up the stairs because there was a series on TV that I didn't want to miss. When I entered the house, I realized that my heart started beating very fast. I lay down, but it was still beating too fast" - says Gabi. She told her dad that she wasn't feeling well. They immediately went to the emergency room.

" "That's when it hit me. On the stairs, when we were leaving the apartment. My whole body shook. I was scared like never before. I didn't know what it was, so I told my dad that my heart was pounding. Today I know what was pounding me... the defibrillator..." - explains Gabi.

Dad Dražen will never forget that day either.
"I was holding her when the device activated for the second time. It's a terrible feeling to watch your own child being bombarded with so many joules of electricity. It should have activated when she was already unconscious, but it wasn't. Now it's been adjusted," says Dražen. Last year she had two seizures, and now she's stabilized a bit.

If I didn't have my dad, I don't know what I would do. He means everything to me and I feel safe when he's with me. So at the end of the month I'm going to take him to the high school graduation in Vodice. We'll be there for three days. We'll visit Zadar, Šibenik, Nin and I'm sure we'll have a great time. All my friends love him - says Gabrijela. She is also grateful to her classmates, who are always with her and help her carry her bag so that she doesn't get tired as much as possible. And she gets tired very easily and very often.

Sometimes it takes her ten minutes to walk up the stairs in the building.
"Sometimes I'm late for class because five minutes of a short break isn't enough to get from one classroom to another. But the teachers are understanding. I also have wonderful friends who carry my school bag," she notes, adding that she has accepted that she is different from the others, but it is still difficult for her sometimes.
Sometimes it is difficult for me and I wonder why I am sick. But then I realize that everything happens for a reason and it becomes easier for me - is honest Gabrijela, who remembers very little of her mother Mihaela.
"I have some old photos and that's how I remember her. But I never missed anything. Dad is there for both of us" - she said. Gabrijela is on the threshold of high school. She is still She hasn't decided which direction she'll go in, but she has a great desire to one day become, no less, than an actress.
"I'm very interested in that, but I'm afraid it won't work. It takes a lot of energy and movement, but you never know. Sometimes in life, even the wildest dreams come true, and maybe mine will too" - Gabrijela reveals her distant dreams to us while her dad Dražen tells her that in life, with perseverance, she can be anything she wants.

Stela (4)

Lively, curious, chatty and seemingly healthy little girl, Stella Meja Režek, from Cirkovljani, near Prelog, Međimurje, celebrated her fourth birthday in early May. Although the pregnancy was completely normal, Stella was born with a serious heart defect. Instead of going home with her mother from the maternity hospital, she was urgently taken from the Čakovec maternity hospital to the hospital in Rebro, Zagreb. She was breathing hard, her heart was not beating properly, her skin was blue...

"Your child is terminally ill, but we can help her with surgery and provide her with normal living conditions," the doctors told Stella's mother. A new shock came when they told her that the surgery could not be performed in Croatia, but in Linz, Austria.

He was operated on by experts in Linz.

Shock, sadness, disbelief and the question 'Why me?' "For two weeks after the diagnosis, I didn't function normally, I just cried," said Stella's mother Dijana Režek (27), adding that Stella's diagnosis was complicated.
The doctors explained everything to us before the operation and warned us about the possible consequences. "The procedure itself lasted about eight hours and I was happiest when my phone rang and when cardiologist Rudolf Mair, who operated on her, told me that everything went well," says Dijana, adding that Stella was implanted with an artificial vessel and an artificial valve.
She was born with only one valve, which then had to do double duty, which is why it was slightly damaged. Therefore, in addition to the artificial valve she has, Stella will eventually need to have her natural one replaced.
"Stela still has an operation ahead of her, depending on her development and growth," says her mother Dijana, adding that after the operation, Stela refused food for a long time, so she was fed via tube for four months. Due to DiGeorge syndrome, which she was also diagnosed with, the girl may lag behind in motor and intellectual development, but for now she is a completely normal child who is even more intellectually developed than her peers, since she is worked with every day.

She was in hospitals for four months.

"When we finally got home from the hospital, Stela was about four months old. I was awake at night because I was afraid to fall asleep.
I was afraid that Stela would stop breathing. At first she was taking five types of medication, now she only takes the ones for the urinary tract because she has problems with that too" - explains mom Dijana and adds that her little girl sometimes gets tired more quickly, and sometimes turns blue, which is a sign that she needs to see a doctor. She goes for a regular check-up at the Zagreb Hospital Center in Rebro every six months, and more often if necessary. Stela loves eating gummy candies, and also likes to do puzzles. Unfortunately, she cannot go to kindergarten for the time being due to frequent illnesses that she could pick up from other kindergarten children there.