The Maltese Relief Service provided a prosthetics workshop for the National Rehabilitation Center UNBROKEN project to help wounded Ukrainians who lost limbs during the war. The workshop operates on the territory of St. Panteleimon Hospital of the First Medical Association of Lviv. The amount of investment is 1 million euros. The project is implemented with the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany and at the initiative of the Minister of Health of Germany Karl Lauterbach.
Maltese Relief Service in Ukraine has been working for 30 years, before the war we helped the poor, the needy, the elderly, and orphans. “And since the beginning of the war, we have also been on the front, on another front. Every day we provide huge humanitarian aid. We are glad that we can help in the most difficult situations, where the damage is the greatest. Namely, we help the wounded soldiers and civilians who suffered because of hostilities,” said Pavlo Titko, head of the Maltese Relief Service.
The aim of the project is to quickly provide free prostheses and treatment for patients injured during the war. All the necessary equipment for the workshop, components for prostheses, and materials from one of the world’s best manufacturers Ottobock were provided by the Maltese Relief Service. In addition, together with the workshop, the National Rehabilitation Center “Unbroken” received 200 prostheses. Also, orthopedic technicians have already been trained in Germany.
“We started talking about this idea only in June. And we promptly found a solution and worked very quickly. After all, as it is required in wartime. This mobile workshop, which was purchased from Ottobock, is an effective quick solution for Ukraine. We do not need to wait for the prosthetics of Ukrainians. We have brought here everything we need to provide prosthetics today,” says Pavlo Titko, head of the Maltese Relief Service, “Thanks to our cooperation, the UNBROKEN project received a workshop for the manufacture of prostheses, all the necessary equipment, and components for prostheses. Also, the hospital staff was trained in Germany”.
The prosthetics workshop has two components: a room in the hospital, where patients are fitted and plaster negatives are made, and a special mobile workshop for the manufacture of prostheses.
“We are very grateful to the Government of Germany, the Maltese Relief Service, and our Ministry of Health for supporting Ukrainians affected by the war,” says Oleh Samchuk, CEO of the First Medical Association of Lviv, “The work of the National Rehabilitation Center “Unbroken” is aimed at saving, prosthetics, and rehabilitation of Ukrainians in Ukraine. It is important that the best prostheses are fitted to our citizens at home, in their own country, by our orthopedic technicians. Ukrainians to Ukrainians. A multidisciplinary team consisting of surgeons, traumatologists, orthopedic technicians, rehabilitation specialists, mental health specialists, and mentors works with each patient. The patient does not seek help in different institutions of Ukraine and the world, he receives it at the highest level in one place – in a multidisciplinary hospital.”
The creation of the prosthetics workshop became possible thanks to the assistance of the German Government, especially the Minister of Health of Germany Karl Lauterbach, and the Minister of Health of Ukraine Viktor Liashko.
“Thanks to cooperation with the German Government, the Maltese Relief Service, and the Mayor of Lviv, we managed to organize a prosthetic workshop. What is typical here and what will we implement in other institutions? The fact that the orthopedic technicians are members of a multidisciplinary team, – said Viktor Lyashko, Minister of Health of Ukraine, – We are implementing a separate project on the territory of the hospital: the construction of a rehabilitation complex that will close the full cycle of rehabilitation.”
The Mayor of Lviv emphasized that the city was building an UNBROKEN ecosystem to take care of people so that Ukrainians were able to receive all the necessary assistance in their native country.
“During the war, more than 6 thousand Ukrainians with serious injuries received help here. And we are building an ecosystem of rehabilitation UNBROKEN, which includes surgery, prosthetics, and psychological, social, and physical rehabilitation,” said Andriy Sadovyi, Mayor of Lviv.
