Volodymyr Kirsanov, a 39-year-old defender, was unable to eat after suffering a severe double mine-blast injury. The shrapnel cut his entire body, but it was his face that was most damaged.
Oral and maxillofacial surgeons at the UNBROKEN rehabilitation centre began reconstructing it.
Volodymyr Kirsanov is a driver from Zhytomyr. He volunteered for the war back in 2014. After demobilisation, he returned to his civilian profession. And in the first days of the full-scale invasion, he joined the 95th separate Polissya airborne assault brigade based in Volodymyr’s small homeland.
The defender was seriously wounded in the first summer of the great war. It happened near Izyum in the Kharkiv region. First, a tank shell exploded near Volodymyr, and an enemy mine came right after it. The seriously wounded fighter managed to get to the evacuation point only thanks to the support of his comrade.
“I was in a coma for 19 days. And when I woke up and couldn’t speak, I realised how serious my injury was. The doctors were reassuring me, saying: you’re alive, everything will be fine! But I couldn’t speak. The wounds were all over my body: neck, back, arms, legs. But it was his face that suffered the most,” says Volodymyr.
The defender underwent a series of operations in hospitals in Dnipro, Kyiv and Lviv. Because of the hole in his face, he could not eat properly. Food simply did not stay in his mouth: it fell out and spilled out. As a result, Volodymyr, who weighed more than 80 kilograms before his injury, lost a lot of weight – down to 47 kilograms. Only a complex and multi-stage facial reconstruction could help. So the serious patient was referred to the maxillofacial surgeons at the UNBROKEN Centre.
“The patient had a complicated through gunshot wound to the face. It was decided to close the defect using microsurgical methods, using a flap from the patient’s shoulder. However, because of the tattoo in this area, he categorically refused. So we had to take the flap from the other side. It was a difficult decision, because we had to transport the flap to the opposite side. Although the procedure partially worked, the patient could not stop smoking, which negatively affected the results of the operation, as nicotine constricts blood vessels. We were constantly working to get Volodymyr to quit smoking, as improving blood supply to the area was critical. But, unfortunately, he hasn’t gotten rid of this habit to this day,” says Oleh Kovtuniak, head of the Head and Neck Centre.
After the flap was transplanted and engrafted, Volodymyr began to eat better and, accordingly, gain weight. Subsequently, the maxillofacial surgeons, together with foreign specialists, performed plastic surgery on the patient. In a few months, the veteran will undergo another complex intervention – reconstruction of the lower jaw using an individual prosthesis and closure of the soft tissue defect.
Today, Volodymyr weighs 79 kg. He is working as a driver again and has a great desire to help the army. He says that he would like to return to the army, but with his injury it is impossible.