Oleksandr Gorokhivskyi: learn to use a new leg and return to work and travels

"The first operation lasted five hours. It was difficult to leave Chernihiv due to the blowing up of bridges, but we managed to leave for the Kyiv clinic. They tried to treat me, but the wounds got infected. A blood clot formed, and I started bleeding. I was taken to the operating room. Then I woke up, and the leg was gone," Gorokhivskyi recalls.

After the amputation, he was sent to the Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics. Here, the treatment continued for another two and a half months, but the wound did not heal at all. Gorokhivskyi decided to go to Austria, where he continued his treatment.

"Another two centimeters of the bone were amputated. After that, everything healed in three weeks. Then I was transferred to a rehabilitation center, and there they made my first mechanical prosthesis," says Gorokhivskyi.

Oleksandr became one of the first to go to Estonia for rehabilitation with the support of the BGV charity fund. The fund was looking for more complex cases — amputation of the lower limb above the knee, double amputation. These cases are more expensive and difficult to treat in Ukraine, although the level of Ukrainian specialists is constantly growing, and the market is developing.

Volunteers first offered Gorokhivskyi the opportunity to go to Estonia for rehabilitation and receive an electronic prosthesis instead of a mechanical one. Gorokhivskyi stayed in Tallinn for three weeks, when he received the Genius X3 electronic prosthesis and learned to use it at the level where he could move independently and confidently.

Among the exercises he performed were ordinary slow walking and serious activities with simulators. During rehabilitation, he relearned to climb stairs and walk quickly.

Occupational therapy, or ergotherapy, is practiced in the Tallinn Clinic. This type of physical rehabilitation aims to restore a person's daily activities, taking into account existing physical limitations.

Contractors manufacture genius X3 prostheses for the Tallinn Clinic. One of them is the leader in prosthetics, Ottobock. The approximate cost of one such prosthesis is $70,000. In the clinic, an individual stump receiver is made, connecting the body part and the prosthesis.

Thanks to the new limb, Gorokhivskyi will be able to return to a full-fledged life, which he almost lost due to the war. Before the full-scale invasion, he worked in forestry. The prosthesis-holder says that first, he plans to fully master the new leg, and then he wants to return to work and travel.