Thanks to donors, treatment at the Superhumans Centre is free of charge for all those affected by the war.
The day before, on 20 June, the entire Superhumans Centre complex was opened in the Lviv region. The event was attended by about 200 veterans who had undergone prosthetics at the centre, patrons who make all treatment free of charge for war victims, and representatives of various levels of government;
“I’ve been talking about Superhumans a lot lately, including last week at the Ukraine Recovery Conference, URC2024 in Berlin. I am very proud that our partners have grown so much, and this centre has become a leader in Ukraine in reconstructive surgery and training of prosthetic surgeons. This is a reason for my pride. I thank everyone for our regular meetings and for their contribution to the creation of this institution. Special thanks to Mr. Howard Buffett and all our foreign partners who care and, most importantly, have multiplied and defended humanity in this difficult time. We would also like to thank Viktor Lyashko for his cooperation. We strive to make this important service even more accessible to people. We are witnessing the restoration of Ukraine, and we are talking about a new social contract, where Ukrainians are not victims, but superheroes who have superpowers instead of limited opportunities,” said First Lady Olena Zelenska.
In addition to the centre’s previously opened facilities, this time the reconstructive surgery and hearing restoration departments, a dental department for preoperative oral preparation, and a 3D printer laboratory for printing models of missing facial parts for better preoperative preparation, as well as stumps and orthoses, have been opened. The new building has two modern operating theatres and intensive care units. There are 70 beds for patients;
Next, the Superhumans Centre plans to open an educational centre to train physical therapists and prosthetists. This education is intended to be a two-way process: training of the centre’s specialists, who will then pass on their experience to other doctors in Ukraine. The centre will also employ specialists who will help all those who have undergone rehabilitation to find a job;
“Over the year, the centre has provided full prosthetics services to more than 600 patients, and performed more than 100 unique surgeries. Soon, the Superhumans Centre will open an educational centre to train physical therapists and prosthetists. And the project has already begun to scale up to Odesa and Dnipro. It sounds incredible, but it’s a reality. We have this reality thanks to Andriy Stavnitser, Olha Rudneva, Andriy Vilenskyy and the large team of professionals they lead, the First Lady
“I would like to thank Olena Zelenska and the Minister of Health of Ukraine Viktor Liashko, who believed in this project and are helping it to develop, and all the patrons who believe in Ukraine and Ukrainians,” said the head of Lviv Oblast Maksym Kozytskyi.
The founder of the centre, Andriy Stavnitser, says that the Superhumans Centre is like a temple for him.
“I want to thank all the partners and donors. This place is like a temple for me, and I was lucky to build this centre with great people for great people. Here we turn all wounds and scars into pride and memories. We have become a centre specialising in the treatment of combat trauma, constantly expanding our expertise. I am sure that this makes us stronger, and the experience we have gained around the world must be shared with as many doctors as possible,” Andriy Stavnitser addressed the audience.
In the sports area, veterans and guests took part in competitions and training in adaptive sports. The activities included table tennis with a candidate for master of sports, archery with a world record holder and Ukrainian champion, arm wrestling with a candidate for master of sports, crossfit, rowing machines, airbike, kettlebell lifting, paratriathlon and testing of running prostheses.
“I’ve been through a lot over the past year. But thanks to the centre, I saw penguins in Antarctica, travelled the world and started dancing with my team again. I am glad that I was able to return to my team and perform on the big stage again two weeks ago. Today I am with you. I could have been gone, but I am here,” said one of the veterans who underwent prosthetics at the Superhumans Centre.
Olga Rudneva noted that the centre will continue its mission to provide the most advanced technologies and techniques for the rehabilitation of war victims and plans to scale its model to different regions of Ukraine.
This initiative, together with the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and Superhumans, has received support from the French government, and the next centre will open in Odesa in 2025 with the support of Expertise France, based at Odesa Medical University. This will create a university hospital and combine theoretical education with practical activities. Odesa Medical University is providing 4,000 sq m of space for Superhumans Odesa.
The Superhumans centre in Lviv region was founded on 14 April 2023 in collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, with the support of the First Lady of Ukraine, the Lviv Regional Military Administration, the Howard Buffett Foundation and other donors and partners.