Matej “Sajfa” Cifra (46) and Veronika Cifrová Ostrihoňová (37) they are the proud parents of two children – daughter Sára and son Šimon – but they were very worried about their younger child in recent months. The boy ended up in the hands of doctors and spent the Easter holidays in the hospital. Neither of them wanted to talk publicly about the details of his diagnosis for a long time, but the now well-known presenter revealed to the newspaper what was happening in their family and how everyone was experiencing it.
Although Šimon has undergone a difficult operation and is on the way to a full recovery, this has put the family in front of a huge logistical and especially psychological challenge. It all started with a diagnosis that no parent wants to hear. The son of a well-known couple has contracted meningitis – a condition that requires immediate and immediate medical attention.
„We experienced inflammation of the meninges, which is actually an unpleasant matter, because it can very quickly escalate into very fatal consequences.” he admitted openly. The presenter does not hide that in the first moments he was taken aback by the fact that such a serious situation affected their family. “We came to the point where he also underwent some surgery. Thank God, everything turned out well, but it could have turned out completely differently,” he added.
When he asked himself and his wife why they had to experience such fear for the life of her own child, her reaction surprised him with its strength and pragmatism. “My wife said, ‘Why not us? We have all the resources to handle this. To somehow overcome this new reality,'” he mentions. In the most difficult moments, the family could lean on a wide network of loved ones. The two grandmothers and other people from the neighborhood who were immediately ready to lend a helping hand were a huge help.
The son’s health problems came at a time when the family was operating on the route Bratislava – Brussels due to Veronika’s work duties. It was crucial for the couple that the situation affected their older daughter as little as possible and did not interrupt her schooling in Belgium. Therefore, they had to set up a crisis mode. “She got on a plane on Sunday, always either with my mother or with Verčina, flew to Brussels for a week to school and returned on Friday,” he described the difficult logistics.
Although they missed their daughter, according to him, they had to face the new reality. At the same time, critical moments fully tested their marital bond, when they were able to complement each other in a crisis. “In the moments when I was crumbling, she wasn’t crumbling and she was the one saying we’re going to do it. And in the moments she was crumbling and panicking, I was the one saying we have to get through it,” he explained.
She also complemented the view from the outside Adela Vinczeová (45), who described how her longtime colleague experienced it. “You called me about this and you were really very sad. For the first time I experienced Saif crying on the phone, I have never experienced that before. And basically, he somehow called it that he has absolutely no one to cry to, because everyone around him in that family is sad and he doesn’t need to overwhelm them with more sadness.” she revealed.
Even though the worst is over with the Ciphers, they do not yet announce the complete end of the fight. The little patient is currently being treated at home and his condition has improved significantly. “He’s a 90 percent healthy baby at home now. But we still have one thing to do to get him back to 100 percent. We’ll still have to fight, it’s not over yet.” he concluded with hope in his voice.
