At a Maryland prosthetics lab, a team of experts is making arms and legs to help wounded Ukrainian soldiers get a new lease on life.
It’s cutting edge technology that these wounded warriors can’t get in a war zone.
The war in Ukraine has been “devastating,” Mike Corcoran, a specialist in prosthetics, told CTV National News.
Since the invasion of Russia, thousands of Ukrainians are believed to have lost limbs. Their lives shattered by roadside bombs and explosives.
Corcoran is a co-founder of Medical Center Orthotics and Prosthetics, which helps veteran amputees. He and his team donate their time and expertise to the center, and with the help of generous donations (almost a million US dollars so far), they have been able to treat a dozen Ukrainian soldiers, with more on the way.
Having developed his skills in treating US soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, Corcoran and his team have the skills to handle some of the toughest cases.
“One of the patients that came in told us he was suicidal, a double above-knee amputee,” Corcoran said. “They told him he couldn’t get prostheses in the Ukraine…he was very depressed, but now he’s doing fantastic.”
Corcoran says the center’s goal is to make patients feel whole again.
Oleksandr Fedun, 23, had been in the Ukrainian army for two years before a Russian land mine hit him and his convoy. He lost both legs.
He was facing a life in a wheelchair and on crutches. But, after just a month at the center, she is learning to use her new legs.
“Honestly, it feels amazing,” Hanna Ortiz, who volunteers at the facility, told CTV National News through translator. “It feels like I’ve won the lottery.”
Accommodations and adjustments are needed for each prosthesis, along with weeks of rehabilitation to get patients used to their new limbs. The center can also customize the color of the dentures to match various skin tones. One soldier asked for the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag.
Ortiz has lost both of his brothers in the war. His parents refuse to leave their home in Kherson. She checks the news and worries about them every day. Volunteering at the medical center as a translator helps her cope.
“I felt like I wasn’t doing enough,” Ortiz told CTV National News. “Connecting with these guys, watching them go from being depressed and sad and losing their limbs to walking and being happy and talking about going back to Ukraine… makes me feel like I’m really doing something.”
Corcoran says if they had better funding they could treat more patients like Roman Rodion.
When the Russian forces saw Rodion’s unit, they began shelling. Five people were injured, two died, another lost a leg. It took four hours to bring Rodion to the hospital, and at that time it was impossible to save his arm.
The amputation was so high that the center built a harness to support what would be his new bionic arm. Looking in the mirror as they adjusted it, pinching his new fingers, Rodion smiled and said, with a bit of pride, “I look like a cyborg.”
The center has plans to expand its work, but it is an expensive undertaking. A foot shell can cost around $8,000, a leg $25,000.
“This is very expensive stuff, but it’s robust. It’s not delicate,” Corcoran said. “Even though you think it’s expensive, it’s designed to be abused, designed for normal human life.”
That’s the idea. Eventually, the war will end and the Ukrainians treated at the facility will return home.
Fedun, who has been here the longest, around a month, is honing his reflexes with his new knees. Part of his rehabilitation therapy is falling down and getting up again, a skill many of us take for granted. He does it four times, proving that he “can” do it.
He says he plans to not only walk on his new legs, but also run back to the front lines and fight for his country.
“It’s a miracle,” he said. “I feel like me again. This is where hope is born.”