“We are going to become a country with a lot of injured amputees”

SuperHuman Center director Olga Rudneva sneaks amid construction to a swimming pool at the former Veterans Hospital, an abandoned pool now in water with submerged bicycles. “They never used it, because it was in very bad condition, she explains. But it’s perfect for doing hydrotherapy, for those who have orthopedic problems. It lightens your weight. If you can’t move on the ground, you can do it in the water. This is one of the axes of rehabilitation”. This national rehabilitation center specializing in reconstructive surgery, located in Lviv, will, among other things, provide prostheses to soldiers and civilians, victims of the war which has lasted for more than a year with Russia. The brand new health facility, supported by Ukrainian civil society with international funds, wants to give a future to these injured people and change the way people look at disability. The Minister of Health François Braun is also going there, Friday 14 and Saturday 15 April, to inaugurate it.

Some 120 candidates for 45 places available

Places are expensive in this new clinic. One hundred and twenty people are already on the lists for 45 places available. For some, it will be complicated to find the right prosthesis, because there are more and more amputations too high on the arm, tourniquets placed as quickly as possible in the middle of the fighting.

“The problem is that the road dedicated to the evacuation of the wounded is too long, says Andryi Vilenskyi, the clinic’s chief physician. As soon as a soldier is injured in a limb, he puts on a tourniquet, a tourniquet. And every once in a while, when he arrives at the hospital, it’s already too late, his arm is no longer viable, you have to amputate.”

For the first time, the services are grouped together in the same place: psychiatrists to accept the prosthesis, technicians who will create it to measure, occupational therapists to learn how to use it, etc. A special piece was designed by French people. “It’s the reproduction of the rooms of a normal apartment, we have the kitchen with dishes, cups to grabdescribes Andryi Vilenskyi. It’s as if the patient were at home, he will be able to relearn everyday life here”.

In just one year, the humanitarian team has raised $21 million in international funds, with the support of stars like Sting. We must now think about the future by changing the way people look, advocates Olga Rudneva.

“We have to make the handicap completely normal, we will become a country with a lot of injured amputees. It shows that they fought to liberate Ukraine and they should not be ashamed.”

Olga Rudneva, the director of the clinic

at franceinfo

By the end of the year, the SuperHuman Center clinic will open a surgery service, when the caregivers and technicians, few in number today, will be trained.