When Dasha was 17, her mother died. They were close, and the loss made Dasha physically weak and prone to depression. A few years later, when she was studying psychology and working simultaneously, she developed what she thought was just a cold. But after several months of coughing, she found out she had TB. She finished treatment and thought she had won the battle, but shortly after, the disease came back and she was sent to the hospital for yet another round of treatment. There, she met Grisha.

Both of Grisha’s parents are doctors. Grisha’s father became a TB doctor because his mother died from TB. Naturally, Grisha knew a lot about this disease. When he developed typical TB symptoms (night sweats, tiredness), he immediately knew the cause.

Unfortunately, he not only developed TB, but the most pernicious and difficult to treat form of it-extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB), which is resistant to isoniazid and rifampin, the two TB drugs, plus a fluoroquinolone and an injectable second-line drug. Grisha’s treatment did not go well, and when he met Dasha it seemed that his chances of survival were close to zero - cavities in both lungs and resistance to most of the available drugs.

Doctors had given him less than a year to live. Giving him one more chance, the doctors of the Research Institute of Tuberculosis admitted Grisha to the hospital, and through a careful selection of medication and surgery, Grisha recovered. As he admits, he could not have done it without Dasha. Ever since they’ve met, they have spent each day together. Dasha, having recovered from TB in 2006, has supported Grisha in each step of his treatment.