“We’re not trained for war wounds”

They are disfigured for life, by shrapnel, bullets or mines. There are hundreds of broken faces right now in Ukraine. Most of these soldiers do not benefit from care commensurate with their injuries, due to lack of time and resources: military hospitals, specialized in the reconstruction of these faces mutilated by war, are unable to cope with a such an influx of patients. Civilian hospitals then take over, with the means at hand.

>> War in Ukraine: “My arms and legs were burned, my face was shredded,” says a mine clearance worker seriously injured by Russian mines

There are numerous soldiers in the corridors of the civil hospital in kyiv. Denys enters Doctor Pavlovsky’s office. This 25-year-old Ukrainian has a large scar on his left face, from his cheekbone to his chin and the corner of his lips. He sits next to his surgeon and tells his story in one go. “Everything happened so fast”he said with difficulty in articulating: this forest in the Luhansk region, a month ago, the Russians a few meters away, the powerful artillery fire, his comrades dead everywhere in the trench… “At one point, I wanted to look at the situation. I stood up and when I turned my head, I received a sniper bullet. It entered below my right ear and came out through my left cheek. I said to myself: it’s over… I put a cloth in my wound and then a bandage.”

Dionysius then tries to retreat. He runs, he falls, he crawls as a Russian plane passes overhead. And then a friendly hand picks him up. The ambulance is here. Denys loses consciousness. He wakes up in a hospital bed in the city of Dnipro. “I couldn’t speak anymore, I couldn’t hear well… I got up, I was naked. I approached the mirror, I received a shock: I was completely devastated.” Denys has part of his face torn off.

“I told myself that in this state no one was going to want me anymore… I wouldn’t be useful for anything anymore. I was really scared.”

Denys, 25 years old, disfigured Ukrainian soldier

A few days later, Denys landed at civil hospital number 12 in kyiv. He underwent a series of operations and partly regained his face thanks to the work of Doctor Pavlovsky. The surgeon is overwhelmed at the moment, the military hospitals are full, but we must take our share of this influx of patients: “We do civilian medicine. Normally, we do not treat war injuries, which require very heavy reconstructive operations. We are not trained for this. But the situation forces us to face it. And then I, as a doctor, do not see the financial support from the State for these serious injuries when we need basic equipment: plates, screws, but also very elaborate titanium prostheses. .”

“To get by, we finance ourselves or we turn to our partners. If they weren’t there, it would be very difficult for us.”

Doctor Pavlovsky, surgeon at the kyiv Civil Hospital

The Étoile de l’Est foundation is one of the partners mentioned by the surgeon. Its deputy director, Natalia Lutikova, is tasked with finding money to finance prosthetics. It also connects volunteer surgeons with wounded soldiers. “We specifically committed to these guys who were idle. Either because they didn’t have the money to pay for the implants, which are quite expensive, or because they had no information about possible treatment. . Some were returning home to their small village with just temporary plates on their jaws. They could neither eat nor speak. Our goal is to collect all these patients.

“In times of crisis, the State fails to meet these challenges. So for a certain time, volunteers, who are more agile, take over to find solutions to then pass on to the State.” Over the last six months, Natalia and her team have enabled 41 patients to be able to look in the mirror again.