Serving to a wounded Ukrainian soldier stroll once more

Earlier than this previous spring, Alexander Chaika made his dwelling dancing, tumbling and instructing. However as soon as Russia invaded Ukraine, he joined the Ukraine military and was rushed to the entrance. “The nation was at risk,” he stated by way of an interpreter. “There was no thought on my half that I would not be a part of and do the suitable factor by my nation.”

Final April a Russian shell price him his proper leg all the way in which as much as the hip. “They advised me on the hospital that I used to be near dying,” Chaika advised CBS Information nationwide safety correspondent David Martin.

“Did the docs let you know they had been going to must amputate your leg?”

“I used to be already unconscious right now, so I used to be not conscious that they might amputate my leg,” he replied.

In Ukraine, hospitals are inundated with the wounded, each navy and civilian, and medical personnel haven’t but developed the experience to deal with excessive amputations. “They did not have the information or the aptitude of taking good care of somebody with Oleksandr’s degree of damage,” stated Mike Corcoran, of Medical Heart Orthotics & Prosthetics, in Silver Spring, Md.

Touring along with his spouse, Anna, and Olena Nikolayenko, of the charitable group Future for Ukraine, Chaika arrived within the U.S. final month to be fitted by Corcoran for a brand new leg.

Corcoran had fitted wounded American veteran (now Senator) Tammy Duckworth along with her prosthetic limbs, and is now volunteering to do the identical for amputees from Ukraine. “We now have dedicated to this venture half 1,000,000 {dollars} of our providers, as a result of you need to help these individuals which are combating for democracy,” he stated.

Duckworth met Chaika, and took off her personal prosthetics. “That is what occurs with amputees; we begin taking off our garments!” Duckworth stated. “We all the time examine, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, you are like me!'”

Duckworth, who misplaced each legs 18 years in the past in Iraq, is aware of what lies forward for Chaika: “I had two selections: One was to take a seat at residence and really feel sorry for myself; and the opposite was to do one thing with the life that I obtained.”

On Chaika’s first full day in America, he reported to Corcoran’s prosthetic clinic to be fitted for a socket for his new leg, a process made harder as a result of the amputation is so excessive up and the reduce was not a clear one.

Six days later, he sees his $100,000 leg for the primary time. “Wow!” he exclaimed.

“You want?” requested Corcoran.

“Sure!”

He hasn’t stood on two legs since he was wounded.

Martin requested, “Alex, how does it really feel?”

“It’s magic,” Chaika’s translator replied. “He cannot think about that he has this leg.”

The following day he begins studying to stroll once more. “So, all the time head up,” Corcoran instructed.

His bodily health provides him a bonus beginning over. “All of the components are designed to make strolling as simple as potential, but it surely’s nonetheless loads of effort,” Corcoran stated. “It is as high-tech because it comes. A microprocessor knee, a hydraulic hip joint, and it is precisely what our wounded warriors over right here can be receiving.”

Duckworth famous, “My expertise’s somewhat bit older than what he is obtained. He is obtained extra fashionable stuff than I do!”

However regardless of how state-of-the-art the expertise, amputees all reside with phantom ache of their lacking limbs. Duckworth stated, “For me, more often than not, it appears like somebody is taking a thick nail and hammering it into the bones of my toes with electrical energy going by way of it – zzzit, zzzit, zzzit!“

Chaika stated he feels as if somebody is smashing his foot tightly in a vise, “after which smashing it with a hammer.”

The pores and skin on Chaika’s stump is already starting to interrupt down and can want additional surgical procedure. Corcoran stated, “This can be a course of that goes for years. His muscle groups will atrophy somewhat, after which in some unspecified time in the future you need to make a brand new socket. The elements will final three to 5 years, however we might do a brand new socket in a yr.”

Duckworth has already realized the arduous fact of shedding a limb in fight. “The injuries from battle, each the bodily ones, and the psychological ones, and the hidden ones, might be with you for the remainder of your life,” she stated.

Chaika stated Duckworth was “the bee’s knees,” for being so inspiring given all she’d been by way of.

Corcoran stated, “Perspective is every little thing. You probably have the need, we’ll provide the instruments.”

“What do you consider his angle?” Martin requested.

“Improbable!”

Alex Chaika and Anna fell in love earlier than the battle, married as quickly as he got here out of intensive care, and plan to have a household in what she shyly calls “the closest time.” Their child is due in April – one yr after Chaika misplaced his leg. His final title means “seagull” in Ukrainian, and he appears able to take off into his new life.

Alex arrived again in Ukraine per week in the past.  Now, there are three extra amputees at Mike Corcoran’s clinic being fitted for brand new legs.

         
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Story produced by Mary Walsh. Editor: Carol Ross.