Serhiy Rybalko of Cherkaschyna miraculously survived after being severely wounded in the Vugledar region and is currently preparing for prosthetics at the UNBROKEN National Rehabilitation Center. In the NEZLAMNI Center, the defender has already undergone two operations and restored the mobility of his left hand.
Patient: 31-year-old Serhiy Rybalko from Cherkasy region. Before the full-scale invasion, he worked abroad. He came home on the first day of the great war – it was the first day of his vacation. And the next day, the man went to the local military commissariat. He says that memories of his late father and his life principles left no room for hesitation: “I thought at that moment and I think now, if my father was alive, he would have gone and I would have gone with him. Based on this, I simply decided to defend my land.”
Serhii lost his leg in the Vugledar area. He recalls: they dug in with their comrades in order to protect themselves from enemy fire. But the enemies notice the Ukrainian soldiers and open fire with a mortar. One of the shells lands just a few meters away from Serhiy. The next thing the defender sees is three pieces of his own leg. He says that the pain was simply unbearable.
“There were, of course, doubts about whether I wanted to live on, because the pain was hellish. But… We were evacuated on time and I thank them that everything turned out that way,” Serhiy admits now. The fragments of the mine practically pierced the soldier’s entire body: he severed his left leg, mutilated the rest of his limbs, internal organs, and also provoked ischemia of the brain.
After being evacuated from the battlefield, Serhii was first rescued by doctors in Dnipro, and later in Kyiv. Complex operations and a week in a coma. Doctors say that this fighter survived only by a miracle. When they managed to stabilize Serhiy’s condition, they sent him to Lviv for further treatment. In the NEZLAMNI center, the defender is undergoing two more operations. Another fragment is removed and the mobility of the left hand is restored.
Serhiy is currently preparing for prosthetics. He works out with a physical therapist every day and improves his coordination. All this is necessary in order to get a prosthesis as soon as possible. After rehabilitation, Serhiy wants to be useful to the front and comrades again. So he hopes to return to military service.