She did not have time to reach the platform: 79-year-old Maria from Lviv was hit by a train while she was walking along the tracks. The woman was in extremely serious condition – with multiple fractures and bruises. The doctors of St. Luke’s Hospital of the First Medical Association of Lviv managed to save the victim.
The accident happened when the woman was returning home from a country house outside the city. She was in a hurry to catch the train. In order to shorten the path, I decided to go along the tracks, where passage is strictly prohibited. But Mrs. Maria was sure that she would have time to reach the platform. When she was a few meters away, a train came around the corner, caught the woman by her backpack and sent her flying down the gravel embankment.
As a result of the collision, the woman received a severe combined body injury: the entire upper left part was mutilated, multiple closed and open fractures of the upper limbs, clavicle, ribs, and cervical vertebra. The woman also had a closed spinal cord injury, a rupture of the radial nerve, and a traumatic amputation of her arm – the area of her elbow joint was twisted 360 degrees: the limb was held only by the skin. Her blood supply stopped. There was a high risk of amputation.
Doctors immediately operated on the woman at St. Luke’s Hospital. First, the initial surgical treatment of the wounds was performed, the blood supply was restored in time, the torn radial nerve was sutured and the muscle responsible for the extension of the arm was restored and, thus, the woman’s left arm was preserved.
Ms. Maria spent the next 6 days in intensive care, where a team of intensive care doctors stabilized her condition. After that, the surgeons were able to proceed to the next stage of treatment – restoration of the integrity of the clavicle.
Today, the woman’s condition is stable, she is recovering. But, given the severity of her injuries and her advanced age, she still has a long course of treatment and rehabilitation ahead of her.