The best rehabilitation for Unbroken children

"My name is Yana Stepanenko.

On April 16, I turned twelve years old.

It seems that the whole world knows my story.

On April 8, 2022, my mother, brother, and I were at the Kramatorsk train station, wanting to go to our relatives in the Carpathians. Away from the war. While we were waiting for the train, a Russian missile hit the station. That killed 59 people, including seven children.

We were lucky to survive.

My mom lost a leg, and I lost both of mine.

*Photo by Emilio Morenatti.

After many months of treatment in Lviv, prosthetics and rehabilitation in the United States, we have already started walking and living a normal life. I go to school, ride my bike, travel.

I really want to learn how to run fast to play hide and seek or catch with my classmates. My family and I are returning to Ukraine. I really want to go home.

Doctors say that until I am 18, I need to change my prostheses every year, sometimes three times a year. And constantly undergo rehabilitation. But I know that the hospital in Lviv, where doctors saved me, does not have the proper equipment to provide me with quality rehabilitation. This is a big obstacle to my return, but I know how to fix it.

And I know for sure that UNBROKEN wants to help all Ukrainian children who need rehabilitation, just like me."

UNICEF estimates that at least 1,000 Ukrainian children have been injured in the war. The actual numbers are much higher. Yana, her mother Natalia and brother Yaroslav were admitted to the UNBROKEN National Rehabilitation Center in April last year. In the summer, the family went to the United States for rehabilitation. 

*Yana undergoing rehabilitation in the United States after prosthetics.

When the doctors said goodbye to the Stepanenko's, Yana said: "I really want to come home to Ukraine". 

And this year, Lviv has done EVERYTHING to ensure that Yana and her mother receive the best rehabilitation at HOME when they return. We opened a prosthetic workshop, an adult rehabilitation unit, and soon a rehabilitation unit will be opened at the children's hospital. Our doctors have learned to do the impossible.

Recovery of children from war traumas, including amputations, shrapnel wounds, mine-blast injuries, burns, loss of movement of upper and lower limbs, and recovery of children with neurotrauma is long and difficult.

The UNBROKEN Kids rehabilitation unit is being set up at St. Nicholas Hospital. This is a unique medical institution of the First Medical Association of Lviv, where children from birth to adulthood are treated and operated on. Over the past year, more than 60,000 children from all over Ukraine have received help there.

Ukrainians need the best conditions for rehabilitation here in Ukraine. That is why we are launching a fundraiser to buy the world's best equipment for Ukrainian children. The amount needed is UAH 35,360,000.

"We are now opening an inpatient rehabilitation unit at St. Nicholas Hospital. Speaking from the point of view of Ukrainian medicine, last year the creation of a rehabilitation unit with inpatient beds was out of the question. And this is very important for patients who cannot leave the hospital, for children with severe injuries," says Igor Koshivka, Deputy Director for Rehabilitation.

"The difficulty in rescuing and rehabilitating children with war traumas is that they always have combined injuries. For example, a broken arm, a bullet injury or shrapnel wound, a burn. Rehabilitation of such children is a difficult process. For example, brothers Volodya and Yakov from Serhiivka. Yakov's artery was cut, and he had it stitched up. As a result, he suffered a huge massive ischemia, and blood was not supplied to his brain. He suffered a huge stroke and also got a fracture of his forearm.

The modern equipment will help us to bring the children back to normal life and restore their body functions. It is important that children want to play during therapy. We make sure that they perceive therapy as a game," says Serhiy Khuda, a physical therapist at the UNBROKEN Center.

The UNBROKEN Center has stabilized and treated children after disasters in Brovary, Vinnytsia, Chaplyn, Dnipro, Bakhmut, and Kramatorsk. And these are just some of the cities from which we had to rescue children with severe injuries and amputations. Military injuries are among the most difficult to treat, and medical equipment plays a crucial role in emergency care and rehabilitation. Due to the lack of necessary medical equipment, we are forced to ask for the evacuation of our young patients to Western countries, where they are torn from their homes and go through the process of recovery.

Our goal is to make sure that we provide all the necessary assistance in one place, at home, in Ukraine. And that together with them and their families we rejoice at the first steps, first successes and results.