“A shrapnel hit my eye, shattered my skull bones and damaged my brain”: story of rescuing soldier from Armed Forces of Ukraine
Pravda Ukraine
The team of Canadian and American doctors from the Face the Future Foundation mission and Ukrainian doctors has prepared Dmytro, 42, a veteran of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, for eye prosthetics.
A shell from a tank exploded a few metres away from the man, and a fragment of the shell hit the soldier’s face, the Patients of Ukraine charitable foundation said.
Dmytro joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the autumn of 2022, abandoning his profession as an architect and turning into a scout. The man defended Donetsk Oblast for two years until he was injured.
“Driven by adrenaline rush, Dmytro walked for a kilometre to the evacuation centre, and then it was dark. The soldier had to undergo brain surgery, spent 18 days in a coma, but fought his way back to life,” the statement said.
When the defender’s health was no longer in danger, the international mission Face the Future Ukraine team took over the aesthetic treatment of the “trails of war” on his face and prepared Dmytro for eye prosthetics.
In place of the shattered bones of the eye orbit, doctors installed a Materialise, an individual 3D implant, which replaced the lost part of Dmytro’s face.
Dmytro also underwent surgery on his nose to restore nasal breathing and fill in the cavity after brain surgery, which the veteran used to disguise by wearing caps.
“Due to the fact that the shrapnel shattered the man’s eye orbit, it was impossible to put a cosmetic prosthetic eye; it would constantly fall in. Also, the eyelid could not be opened sufficiently because the eye incision was too small.
The reconstructive surgeries performed on Dmytro prepared him for future prosthetics, and soon he will be able to use the eye prosthesis,” said Natalia Komashko, one of the mission coordinators.
The charitable foundation notes that Dmytro recovered quickly after the operation and has already returned home, where his son, 10, was waiting for him.
Face the Future Foundation has already carried out four missions to Ukraine. During the last one, they managed to operate on 34 Ukrainians.
Earlier, UP wrote that an international team of surgeons from Canada, the United States and Ukraine reconstructed the face of a Ukrainian soldier who was severely injured during the fighting in Donetsk Oblast.
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