We want to share with you some good news from the ilaya Medical Company. While many skeptics said it would not work, Donbas Battalion volunteer soldier Oleh is on the mend. Oleh held the record in our project for a defect of the right femur – 14 cm. However, biotechnology has achieved the seemingly impossible. His femur has been restored. A second X-ray, taken 3 months after his primary surgery, has confirmed the successful bone formation processes and restoration of the bone’s integrity.
Before being enrolled in the Bioengineering Rehabilitation for Wounded project, the fighter had almost lost all hope of recovery. This is not surprising, given how long he was in a bad way.
Oleg was injured in Ilovaisk in August 2014 when he was shot in the leg by an enemy sniper’s bullet that tore out a large piece of the femur. At first his wound was treated in a Dnipropetrovsk hospital. Later, to restore the 14 cm of lost bone Oleh was sent to Lithuania – to a hospital in Vilnius, hosting the treatment of Ukrainian ATO fighters. There Oleh completed treatment designed to replace the fibula defect. However, after nine months the bone had still not healed, and the soldier was reliant on a walking frame for mobility.
The secret lies in the medical technology used. In fact, according to doctors, in a transplant into a patient in a normal bone defect location, about 40% of the cells die in the first day after surgery. That is why in the traditional treatment of extensive bone defects the chances of bone healing are slim. While in the case of biotechnology, a transplant treatment can successfully merge with damaged bone – usually noticeable after only 1.5 months from surgery to control x-ray.
Oleh’s treatment as part of the project has followed this chronology:
19.06.2015 sampling of red bone marrow and bone fragment, then cultivation of cellular material was started in the biolaboratory;
29.10.2015 external fixation device is removed and replaced with an alernative, and the injured leg is set in plaster;
12.09.2015 Oleh undergoes his primary operation to replace the defect using 3D-gel chips osteoplastic material and autologous stem cells and a metal osteosynthesis LCP-type plate is fitted.
We thank everyone who helped collect the amount needed for the treatment of Oleh. Together we have help him to return to a normal life without pain and disablity.
Now he continues to develop his leg through exercise. We sincerely wish Oleh a speedy recovery.
