The defender lost feeling in his left leg after being wounded near Bakhmut, as the shrapnel hit the nerve. Surgeons of St. Luke’s Hospital of the First Medical Association of Lviv operated on the soldier and were able to restore the functionality of the damaged limb.
Vitaly Kyrylov – from Odesa. He is 35 years old, his specialty is a software engineer. From March 2022, he voluntarily joined the army. He says: this is our country, our freedom, which must be defended. On March 18, 2023, he came under mortar fire.
“Everything happened so quickly. We started to leave. Just a second, and I’m already lying on the ground and I can’t feel my legs,” the defender shares his memories.
Vitaly was given first aid in a front-line hospital. Then – in Dnipro, and from there he was taken to Lviv – to the National Rehabilitation Center NEZLAMNI. Already here, a team of surgeons and traumatologists made a diagnosis: an open gunshot multifragmentary fracture of both bones of the lower leg with damage to the fibular nerve. Restoring the function of the leg is possible only through surgery.
The operation was planned and well prepared. She was preceded by wound healing. The surgical intervention consisted of two stages. The first: doctors found and removed the fragment, sutured the fibular nerve with rotation of sublimated (dry) porcine pericardium. The second stage: osteosynthesis of the lower leg bones. This is a surgical treatment of fractures, which consists in connecting the bones and fixing the limb with mechanical structures and implants.
The operation lasted three hours and was successful. And nerve recovery is not a quick process. So Vitaly has a long rehabilitation ahead of him. After recovery, the defender wants to return to the front line. He can already move on crutches and can feel his leg, and he thanks the doctors for that.
Hundreds of people suffer every day due to Russian aggression, so in order to make their treatment and rehabilitation comfortable and accessible in Ukraine, in Lviv, at the UNBROKEN National Rehabilitation Center, a multidisciplinary team works with every Ukrainian, providing surgical, physical, psychological and psychosocial professional help Thanks to the support of donors, a prosthetics workshop was opened and bionic prostheses are installed, as well as a new modern rehabilitation building: it is 7 floors with the most modern rehabilitation equipment. Every year, 10,000 Ukrainians will be able to receive help here.
Project website: https://unbroken.org.ua/.
Details for donations: https://unbroken.org.ua/donate.html.