Hlib Portman, a 21-year-old Lviv resident who had been in captivity for 13 months with a complex gunshot fracture of the shoulder, could have lost his arm after his release. The limb was neglected: infection at the wound site and 5 centimetres of bone missing. Lviv surgeons at the UNBROKEN Centre managed to save the young defender’s arm.
Hlib decided to join the army when he was 18. He had just started studying psychology at university. He joined the 125th Brigade and took part in battles in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. At first, Hlib served as a rifleman, but later became a sapper.
While performing another mission, he received a bullet wound to his shoulder and was taken prisoner. The occupiers kept the young soldier in the temporarily occupied territory of Luhansk region. His injured shoulder was neglected.
“I had an external fixation apparatus, which under normal conditions should last for six months, but I had it for a whole year until it fell out. My hand became inflamed and started to fester. Did it hurt? When we went to bed, the pain was so bad that it was impossible to breathe. Every breath moved my body and, accordingly, my arm,” says Glib about his 13 months in captivity.
Earlier this year, during another prisoner exchange, Hlib Portman was released. He was admitted to the UNBROKEN Centre with a complex, neglected and fused gunshot fracture of the shoulder, which was missing 5 centimetres of bone.
The orthopedic traumatologists at the UNBROKEN Centre decided to operate on Hlib in several stages. First, the infected tissue was removed and a cement implant (spacer) was placed to form a place for a bone implant. And during the next stage, doctors took a fragment of bone from the patient’s pelvis and made an implant from it using special bio-glass.
Both interventions and postoperative rehabilitation were successful. Today, Hlib has recovered so much physically that he has even been able to climb mountains. Whenever he has free time, he actively shares his sapper experience and gives courses on demining and handling explosive devices. In the future, he dreams of studying to become a psychologist, but for now he wants to return to the army.
Reference.
The UNBROKEN National Rehabilitation Centre is a unique place where adults and children affected by Russian aggression receive comprehensive care. This includes reconstructive surgery, orthopaedics and prosthetics. The injured are not only fitted with prostheses, but they are also manufactured here. The wounded also receive physical, psychological and psychosocial rehabilitation and recovery under the guidance of specialists. All care is provided free of charge. The centre was opened in April 2023.
A 1,000-square-metre international prosthetics and orthotics centre was opened on 10 May 2024 at the UNBROKEN centre with the support of the German government. It will be able to manufacture more than a thousand prostheses a year, train future prosthetists and conduct research and development.