Ruslan Veleshko, a resident of Rivne, was diagnosed with a malignant blood disease after he fell in the street. He underwent chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant at St Panteleimon’s Hospital of the First Medical Association of Lviv.
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44-year-old Ruslan from Rivne was injured last winter. He slipped on the street, fell and felt severe pain in his lower back. The man did not go to traumatologists immediately.
“I was experiencing severe fatigue and back pain. I was constantly overworking at work and thought it was caused by the pain. I tried a course of massages, but it didn’t give any improvement,” Ruslan says.
The doctors diagnosed the patient with a fractured rib and vertebral damage, but were very surprised. After all, with such a light fall, the man could hardly have sustained such a severe injury. So the doctors suspected a more serious illness. After the examination, Ruslan was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. This is a malignant disease of the haematopoietic system, which causes tumour growth of plasma cells.
The man was advised to seek treatment at the Lviv Department of Haematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation at St Panteleimon’s Hospital.
Lviv specialists prescribed several courses of chemotherapy for the patient. In case of its effectiveness, the man was also shown autologous bone marrow transplantation, i.e. transplantation of his own stem cells.
“Ruslan underwent three courses of chemotherapy, after which he underwent an autologous transplant. This process consisted of two main stages: first, the stem cells were stimulated and harvested using apheresis, after which the cells were frozen and prepared for transplantation. The operation went well, and the recovery was quite fast and without any significant complications,” says Solomiya Glukhovska, head of the Department of Haematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation at St Panteleimon’s Hospital.
Throughout the entire treatment process, Ruslan’s wife was very supportive. And the patient himself, the doctors say, is an optimist by nature and was determined to have a positive outcome.
A month and a half has passed since the transplant. Now Ruslan is feeling well. He is at home in Rivne. And he comes to Lviv doctors only for control examinations, during which they record the patient’s remission. So the man plans to return to work soon.
As a reminder, the First Medical Association of Lviv is currently one of 9 medical institutions in Ukraine that perform stem cell transplants. They are actively developing this area of work.