An 18-year-old student who was injured in a horrific car accident due to a collision with a buffalo is gradually recovering. The boy suffered a serious head injury, which was successfully treated by neurosurgeons from St Panteleimon’s Hospital of the First Medical Unit of Lviv.
The road accident occurred on 30 September in the Lviv district. That morning, Maksym Andriyko, a student at Lviv Polytechnic, and his friend were heading to Lviv to study from their native Uhniv. The boys were being driven by a car driver. At around 6am, not far from the village of Rychky, a buffalo suddenly ran onto the road. Due to poor visibility, the driver did not have time to react to the obstacle, which led to fatal consequences – the driver died on the spot.
Maksym does not remember the moment of the accident. He regained consciousness at the scene when the rescuers arrived. The guy complained of severe pain in his head and neck, and his teeth were knocked out. A large animal, a buffalo, was lying nearby, and the car was almost completely destroyed after the collision with the animal, which weighed about a tonne, and ended up in a ditch.
“Maxim was brought to us a few hours after the accident with a severe head injury. We immediately performed a CT scan, which showed a depressed fracture of the frontal bone. Due to the severity of the injury, it was decided to immediately perform surgery to remove the bone fragments. We successfully performed the intervention. At the moment, Maksym has a small defect in his frontal bone, measuring 2×2.5 cm. In a month or two, he will need to undergo another operation to repair this defect,” said Ostap Fedorko, head of the Centre for Neurosurgery and Neurology and head of the neurosurgical department at St Panteleimon’s Hospital.
Today, Maxim’s condition is stable, and doctors note positive dynamics. On the second day after the operation, the guy started walking around the ward on his own.