Ukrainian couple gives up everything to be with comatose daughter in Regina

For the past three weeks, Natalia and Mykolai Padalka have been living a nightmare.

On March 7, they received the call with news that their daughter was in a coma, the result of a car accident that occurred between Minton and Regina, Sask.

Diana Ovsiienko had immigrated to Canada just two weeks earlier with her husband. Part of a dream to start their lives together in a new country.

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“Diana and I were like best friends. We would talk on the phone every day and always do everything together,” Natalia reminisced.

It took the couple three weeks to get their passports and another 10 days to get travel visas, but as soon as they could, they abandoned their life in Ukraine to be by their daughter’s side.

“The first thing we said to her was “Diana, the love of our life, our daughter, we will always be by your side. We will never leave your side. We will get through this,” her mother said.

“Every day in the last three weeks has been very much the same. We come here every morning and we spend all day with her. We only leave the room to go and have some lunch,” she continued.

Jobless and homeless in a foreign country where they don’t speak the language, the couple has been forced to rely on the generosity of others.

“It’s very difficult coming into a country where you don’t know anything, and you don’t know anybody, and especially when you cannot work,” Natalia said.

But that’s not a long-term solution.

Doctors don’t have a timeline for Ovsiienko’s recovery, saying it could be 6 months, a year, they’re not sure, but as long as their daughter is in the hospital, the Padalka’s plan on being with her.

“We came into the room this morning and said to her, “Diana, if you can hear us, if you can see us, please close your eyes and open them up again.” We have tried this several times. When we ask her she does shut her eyes and open her eyes. We believe she’s trying to tell us that she can hear us, that she can see us, and that she’s going to get better,” Natalia explained.

For the first time, Mykolai interjected as his wife spoke, both of them eager to cling to the hope that small means of communication brings.

Ovsiienko is breathing on her own and has some control over her left leg, and her eyelids. She spends most of her days bedridden, only escaping the confines of her room to be taken outside in a wheelchair; a recent development that’s given the family hope.

“When Diana recovers all I can hope for is to just hear her voice and to be by her side. We don’t have any plans to do anything, it’s just being together as a family and hearing her voice,” her mother wished.

But giving up everything to be with their daughter came with a price, one larger than the family can manage without an income.

They were only able to make the trip thanks to the help of the Ukrainian community in Regina and Saskatoon, and it’s their continued support that has given them a place to live, and food to eat.

“People have been very generous here since we have arrived in helping us out, but it is difficult for us to ask for help from people, so we are really are in hopes of being granted a work visa so that at least one of us can work here,” Natalia said.

The family has reached out to the Ministry of Immigration, but so far haven’t heard back.

“All we can do at this point is keep calling and trying to get through to somebody who can help us out,” her mother continued, “the only plan that we have is to be by Diana’s side and hopefully a miracle will happen.”

A GoFundMe has been created for the family to help while they await a work visa.