The program has focused mainly on lower limb amputations throughout 2024. Patients are identified through the University Clinic and then referred to rehabilitation services that include prosthetics, physical therapy, and psychosocial support.
“Temporary prosthetics are necessary to fill the gap between the amputation itself and the receipt of a permanent prosthesis, as sometimes it takes a very long time. So, after the wound heals, we start working with the person, doing physical exercises with them, and teaching to walk again after fitting the prosthesis. This way, we don’t lose a single day, which is critically important for us,” says Rayner.
The people for whom all this is happening
Shelling, a high level of mine risk, non-communicable diseases – the reasons why people arrive at the clinic as patients are vastly different. Patients undergoing rehabilitation differ in absolutely everything: their field of activity, profession, age, motivation. Some people want to start a family, while for others, it is essential to return to work. Someone else’s fundamental goal is to walk with their grandchild in their hometown again, holding their hand instead of being guided by a wheelchair. But there is only one thing that unites them all, like a thin, barely visible thread: the desire to have full functional use of their limb again.
“The most important thing is that people with amputations and disabilities can live a normal life, forgetting about the difficulties and problems related to their amputation and injuries,” says Rayner.
He calls his part of the work purely technical. But behind this technicality are simple dreams, hardly achievable without rehabilitation. His patients are both civilians and military. They come from Kharkiv or small villages elsewhere in the region. Among these patients, there are dozens of stories related to the armed conflict and its consequences. Those stories used to be isolated incidents, but today, unfortunately, they are the stark reality.
“We have patients with amputations, for example, due to health complications. As a result of the escalation of the conflict, they were unable to get medical care in their region quickly enough, which led to the loss of their limbs. However, the majority of my patients are military servicemen who were injured in the conflict. We are also currently working with a civilian girl who had her leg amputated due to shelling,” says Rayner.
Source : Icrc
