A man who spent 20 years of his life saving people in emergency situations never thought he would need help himself.
And he turned to the specialists of the Transplantation Centre of the First Medical Association of Lviv for help.
Oleksiy Selezniov is 42 years old. He comes from the now-occupied city of Siverskodonetsk in the Luhansk region. But he has lived in Dnipro for almost all of his adult life. From the age of 18, Oleksii worked as a firefighter. Later, he rose through the ranks to a senior position in the SES. In 2014, the rescuer joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine, where he served for 6 years. Then he returned to work for the SES.
Last year, the man noticed that he was getting too tired and that his stomach had grown bigger and harder, like a heavily inflated football. His wife insisted on going to the doctor.
“When I was examined, I could see in the doctor’s eyes that everything was very bad,” Oleksiy says. Doctors diagnosed the rescuer with cirrhosis, a chronic irreversible progressive liver disease.
Only a transplant of a healthy organ could help Oleksiy. The man found the Transplantation Centre of the First Medical Association of Lviv on the Internet and came to get saved.
“In addition to my family, your doctors supported and motivated me a lot. I felt that I was in good hands. And I’m an optimist in life, so I believed, because I really wanted to live,” says Oleksiy.
The donor appeared after a month of waiting. It was a 59-year-old woman who died due to a brain haemorrhage. Her family made the difficult decision to donate posthumously, giving several people a chance at life. Doctors are sincerely grateful to the family for their sacrifice.
Oleksiy’s donor liver transplant went well. On the 20th day, he went home to his family. Now he is waiting for rehabilitation and follow-up examinations. After the rescue, the man rethought his life. He says he has realised that you shouldn’t put off doing what you can do today because there may not be a tomorrow.
All Oleksiy wants now is to be healthy and spend more time with his wife and daughter.
By the way, since the beginning of the year, Lviv transplantologists have already performed 12 liver transplants.
As a reminder, Lviv is one of the leaders in Ukrainian transplantation. The first transplant was performed here in February 2020. Since then, doctors have performed more than 400 organ transplants. These include hearts, livers and kidneys, as well as lungs. It was here that the first pancreas and kidney transplant in Ukraine was performed, as well as the first heart-lung transplant in Ukraine and a successful split liver transplant.
You can make an appointment for a consultation with the specialists of the Lviv Transplantation Centre by calling +380 (68) 513 37 10 or by visiting St. Panteleimon’s Hospital in Lviv (9 Mykolaychuk Street).