Prostheses for the Unbroken

The war is crippling Ukrainians every day. Severe mine-blast injuries, gunshot wounds, burns. The enemy's weapons do not care who they kill. Rockets and bombs injure military and civilians, adults and children equally. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have lost their limbs since the beginning of the war, and this is an unprecedented number of victims. In Ukraine, amputation rates have reached World War I levels, and according to The Wall Street Journal, more than 50,000 people have needed prosthetics in the first 17 months since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And according to the Ministry of Social Policy, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, in just a year and a half, there have been more than 300,000 people with disabilities. Among these figures are those who have lost limbs. 

"Since childhood, I have dreamed of being a soldier, honor and duty are not just words for me," says Mykhailo Yurchuk, 33, a paratrooper. He enlisted in 2016. In March 2022, his brigade was defending Izyum. An enemy tank platoon came at them. A shell hit the APC next to Mykhailo. It exploded when he ran to save his comrades. The only thing he remembers is darkness. When Mykhailo opened his eyes, his arm was gone and his leg was shattered. Under fire, his comrades dragged their friend several kilometers to the evacuation site, even though he asked them to leave him. And despite the loss of his limbs, Mykhailo decided to live his life to the fullest in gratitude for their feat. Thanks to his willpower and a modern prosthesis, Mykhailo learned to walk by gritting his teeth. The next step was prosthetics of his arm at the National Rehabilitation Center UNBROKEN. 

Serhiy Kostyuchenko is only 23 years old, and a year ago he lost a limb in the Luhansk sector because he hit a mine while defending us. On May 29, 2022, when the shelling started, Serhiy was in the field and remembers only the explosion. That day was the anniversary of his meeting with his beloved Yulia, but instead of celebrating this day, Serhiy was defending us at the front. When he opened his eyes, his right arm was gone, his left arm was damaged, and his legs were cut. Serhiy lost consciousness. Then he does not remember how he got to the intensive care unit. When Serhiy came to and realized what had happened, he decided that he would leave Yulia. She searched for him through her comrades and came to him. When she entered the ward, Serhiy burst into tears, and Yulia proposed marriage. They got married right there in the hospital. After losing his limb, Serhiy needed prosthetics. And thanks to the Prostheses for the Unbreakable charity project, the defender received a modern bionic prosthesis that helps him in his rehabilitation and recovery from his injuries.

Back in the summer of 2022, the National Rehabilitation Center UNBROKEN, based at the First Medical Association of Lviv, took on a huge mission - to create all the conditions for OUR doctors to have all the capacity, skills and capabilities to prosthetically manufacture state-of-the-art bionic prostheses for OUR people at HOME, in their own country. Ukrainians helping Ukrainians. And with the help of caring people, companies, communities, initiative groups and philanthropists, together with dobro.ua, we launched a large fundraiser to provide bionic limbs to our patients - wounded defenders. 

As of the beginning of 2024, 260 patients have already received prostheses at the UNBROKEN Center, and more than 16,000 patients have undergone treatment and rehabilitation. In a year and a half, the Center has opened a prosthetic workshop, a full-fledged rehabilitation building, a Mental Health Center for the wounded and their family members, and a Prosthetics Training and Research Center is under construction.  

In general, this is a unique place where everyone affected by the war - both adults and children - gets a chance to be rescued and rehabilitated. A multidisciplinary team works with each such Ukrainian - a surgeon, traumatologist, prosthetist, psychotherapist, and rehabilitation specialist. The patient does not seek help abroad or in several different institutions, but receives it in one center. According to psychologists, adaptation and socialization are easier when the patient is in a familiar language environment, close to relatives.

The prosthetics program at the UNBROKEN Center helps Ukrainians recover from combat injuries as quickly as possible. In addition to conventional prostheses, the Center's specialists fit patients with bionic prostheses, such as those of Mykhailo and Serhiy. Their cost ranges from 20 to 50 thousand euros. Of course, they will never replace the lost limbs, but thanks to special sensors, they can reproduce their function better than any other device. 

Some patients who have been fitted with bionic prostheses call their new limbs a ticket to a full life. As a result, the Prostheses for the Unbreakable project will provide at least fifty Ukrainians affected by the war with the world's best bionic prostheses. The cost of the project is one hundred million hryvnias. Everyone can join in. 

"Our mission and desire is to create the best for Ukrainians and raise the overall level of prosthetics in Ukraine, to set a bar that simply cannot be lowered. So that no one thinks or even assumes that it is possible to go abroad to get something better than in Ukraine," says Nazar Bahnyuk, prosthetist at the National Rehabilitation Center UNBROKEN.

In the News section, we are able to share with you the stories of those who are preparing for prosthetics and those who have already received their coveted bionic prostheses thanks to the contributions of caring people within this project.