A cancer survivor seeking asylum in the United States is now in ICE detention, while her partner says he is increasingly terrified that inadequate medical care behind bars could put her life at risk after she escaped political persecution.
Katsiaryna Bartko, 33, speaks by phone every day with her partner, Dmitry Shyshov, trying to reassure him as he worries about her worsening condition following surgery that removed her thyroid and parathyroid glands during cancer treatment.
Since that operation, Bartko has depended on daily calcium supplements and hormone replacement medication for the past 11 years, according to the Kansas City Star.
‘It’s very hard to hear every morning her voice fading,’ Shyshov told the publication, describing the emotional toll of their daily calls.
Bartko, a Belarusian migrant, left her home country in March 2022 on an F-1 student visa after publicly opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and criticizing President Vladimir Putin.
She landed in New York and eventually travelled to the University of California San Diego to study the English language through an international student program,’ the outlet reported.
‘She is a member of an opposition group the [Lukashenko] regime brands “extremist” – and of opposition networks that Belarus prosecutes as crimes. The authorities are already looking for her,’ a GoFundMe for Bartko said.
‘If she is deported back, she faces arrest, a fabricated criminal case, and torture — and as a cancer patient who depends on daily medication, an interruption of her treatment in a Belarusian prison would be life-threatening.’
Katsiaryna Bartko, 33, calls her partner, Dmitry Shyshov, everyday to calm his fears over her dwindling health after she had her thyroid and parathyroid glands removed during her cancer battle
Bartko was arrested in Miami on May 5 for a misdemeanor over a ‘domestic dispute’ – a charge that was later dismissed. She was taken into custody by ICE on June 4
The Belarusian migrant fled her home country in March 2022 on an F-1 student visa due to her vocal opposition of Russia’s war on Ukraine. She landed in New York and eventually travelled to the University of California San Diego to study the English language
After fleeing her home country, several of her friends who shared similar viewpoints were apprehended by the government and agents visited Bartko’s parents’ home looking for her, the outlet reported.
Then, Bartko was arrested in Miami on May 5 for a misdemeanor over a ‘domestic dispute’ – a charge that was later dismissed. She was taken into custody by ICE on June 4.
Immigration officials cited Bartko’s student visa, which lapsed during her application for asylum which was filed in February 2023, a website dedicated to helping Bartko said.
‘Since then, she has been held in a CoreCivic- operated ICE facility in Leavenworth, Kansas,’ the site states.
According to the website, Bartko is set to appear for her asylum hearing on September 28, 2026.
But Shyshov is worried that she won’t be able to make it to the hearing if she falls into a myxedema coma from ‘severe untreated hypothyroidism.’
Since her detention, ‘the facility has repeatedly failed to give Katsiaryna the medication she was prescribed,’ according to the fundraiser.
According to the site dedicated to raising awareness over Bartko’s treatment, when the detainee requested her medicine, officers told her to ‘stop making medical inquiries.’
Immigration officials cited Bartko’s student visa, which lapsed during her application for asylum which was filed in February 2023
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The site added that her medical bills, which it claims ICE is responsible for, are being sent to her.
‘In early June, this led to a series of medical emergencies and multiple trips to the hospital. She has come dangerously close to losing her life in a cell, for a condition that is fully manageable with medicine that costs almost nothing,’ the GoFundMe page stated.
According to a petition filed to the court, Bartko was rushed to the emergency room on June 6 ‘after disruption of her treatment’ with ‘critically low ionized calcium’ levels.
‘During her transfer to Kansas in mid-June, Bartko again went approximately 72 hours without her full prescribed regimen. On June 21, 2026, a facility physician evaluated her…[and] confirmed her risk of another life-threatening crisis, and her urgent need for oncology and endocrinology evaluation,’ the court petition said.
The following day, Bartko ‘experienced carpopedal spasm, voice disturbance, tingling, weakness and difficulty breathing,’ the documents claimed.
‘No outside specialist has examined her in more than two months of detention – a fact the government itself confirms in its filings. The oncology referral for a thyroid cancer patient was returned marked,’ Bartko’s website said.
‘The endocrinology referral, created on August 11, sits unsigned with a quantity of zero.’
Sarah Raza, a trauma and vascular interventional radiologist with Physicians for Human Rights, said in an interview: ‘[Bartko’s] hormones have been – I mean, it’s an understatement to say extremely poorly regulated.’
Shyshov is worried that she won’t be able to make it to the hearing if she falls into a myxedema coma from ‘severe untreated hypothyroidism.’ Since her detention, ‘the facility has repeatedly failed to give Katsiaryna the medication she was prescribed,’ Shyshov claimed
Shyshov wrote in a letter to the court in June that Bartko is ‘everything good that a person can be – thoughtful, devoted and full of warmth toward the people around her’
‘It’s obvious if we just objectively look at the blood work,’ she said, court documents showed.
‘I would worry about neglect because she’s having multiple hospitalizations, multiple blood works that are showing she’s not being adequately treated with medications for this,’ Raza added, the outlet reported.
‘If you do develop myxedema coma, that is a serious, significant percentage of those patients who unfortunately don’t make it’.
In a statement to the outlet, Ryan Gustin, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, said: ‘I can share that the individual you asked about is being regularly monitored by facility medical staff, with all known medical issues being addressed.’
Her partner wrote in a letter to the court in June that Bartko is ‘everything good that a person can be – thoughtful, devoted and full of warmth toward the people around her.’
‘Katsiaryna came to this country asking for protection. Instead she is sick, alone, and being punished for needing the medicine that keeps her alive,’ Shyshov said on a the GoFundMe.
On Instagram, Shyshov wrote: ‘Katsiaryna isn’t a case number. She’s the woman I love…This is the part I need people to understand: she could die in that cell. Not eventually, not in theory – a stress, an infection, an ordinary cold could be enough. No court ever sentenced her to this.’
‘A judge this week confirmed she is not a danger to anyone. And yet she remains inside, while the days she can’t afford keep passing. We’re fighting for her release and for her to survive it.’
The Daily Mail reached out to ICE and CoreCivic for comment.