Another participant in the Bioengineering Rehabilitation for Wounded project has been on the operating table. The main stage of treatment of Serhiy is still ahead as the doctors in the Kyiv-based iLaya Medical Company were sampling stem cell material. Eventually they will produce bone matrix and a special medical gel saturated with the patient’s own cells, after a few months the implanted materials will have made a significant impact on the bone defect.
Currently Serhiy suffers from a serious nonunion femur fracture and chronic osteomyelitis, which has destroyed 9 centimeters of bone. Although he has hope for the restoration of the bone via cellular technology, finance for treatment came via people’s donations collected by the volunteers of The People’s Project.
Bone debris held together only due to a large pin
Serhiy was wounded during the defense of Debaltseve in February 2015 in a powerful mortar attack. Fragments severely injured his leg and from shock and blood loss, Serhiy has little memory of the incident and only remembers the hospital. In combat trauma, bullet or shell fragments immediately infect the wound, so it is of severe suppurative inflammation Serhiy suffers from to this day. Chronic osteomyelitis destroyed 9 centimeters of bone, military doctors had to shorten another three centimeters of bone and installed a large pin. Eighteen months of going from state hospital to state hospital has yeilded no result – at present there remain pockets of infection, the fracture does not heal and the total bone defect is already 13 centimeters. To save the leg there is only one way: carefully clean the wound from infection, then introduce a matrix and Serhiy’s own cells, implanted at the site of the bone defect.
Over time, the site of the defect will see regeneration of bone at the original strength
To date we have collected only a portion of the funds needed for Serhiy’s treatment and paid only the first stage. If we are forced to abandon his case halfway, his wife and three children at home could be left with a husband and father with a permanent disability. We can only pay for his treatment only through your donations to the Bioengineering Rehabilitation for Wounded project. The state is not funding treatment, help for Serhiy and other wounded Ukrainian soldiers lies in your hands.
