technological feats to heal broken bodies
A thousand days of clashes, millions of tons of shells dumped, and above all 400,000 wounded Ukrainian soldiers and civilians*. Since the Russian invasion of February 24, 2022, a conflict from another time has been taking place in eastern Ukraine. Positional warfare, massive use of artillery and men in trenches, the European continent had not experienced such a situation since 1945. Legs torn off, hands cut off, faces burned or blinded… the Ukrainian soldiers returning from the front remind us the French collective imagination the “broken faces” of 1914-1918. “The similarities between the slaughter of the First World War and the Russian-Ukrainian fighting of today are numerous,” admits Guillaume Ancel, a former artillery officer and war chronicler.
Operate and rehabilitate
Like France at the beginning of the last century, all of Ukraine finds itself strangled by war. In the east of the country, fighting is raging to eat up a few square meters of occupied territory; in the west, bombings are rarer, but the conflict remains no less present in the daily lives of residents. 70 km from the Polish border, Lviv has become one of the nerve centers of the Ukrainian war effort. Since February 2022, the city has welcomed waves of refugees fleeing the fighting but also soldiers seeking care. Superhumans was born from the explosion of these needs. This state-of-the-art surgery and rehabilitation center demonstrates the technical prowess of which a health system is capable in times of war. Open since February 2023, this brand new complex, financed by private funds (charity, fundraising, international aid, etc.) has as its main patron the foundation of the American billionaire and philanthropist Howard G. Buffett.
Backed by a military hospital, it has 70 rooms and its teams perform more than 300 different types of surgeries: installation of hip, leg, arm, hand and foot prostheses, eardrum repair, hearing aids, maxillofacial reconstruction, etc. The energetic atmosphere that reigns within its walls contrasts with the severity of the injuries of the bodies roaming the corridors. Relentless determination, smiling while trying out prosthetics, jokes in the gym, hugs after a discussion group with the psychologist… Superhumans promotes surpassing oneself at every moment. “Receiving your prosthesis is only 50% of the way, all the rest consists of learning to walk again, to cook or tinker with your new hand, to drive your car or carry your child with dignity,” says Oleg, physiotherapist.
Coerced and forced, Ukraine is developing expertise in the management of these injuries. “Military surgeons have already been practicing since the start of the clashes in Donbass in 2014, but from 2022, those in the public sector have also progressed at full speed in the face of necessity,” observes Iulia Shukan, research director at war amputees at the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences. To support and train these doctors in the most complex operations, such as repairs of mutilated faces, a cooperation agreement was signed between the French and Ukrainian ministries of Health in April 2023. Since then, specialists from the Pitié hospital Salpêtrière, in Paris, go to Lviv every month.
Although technical feats may multiply, they cannot cure the trauma that is spreading throughout society. Because the most acute wound is psychological: it dissuades Ukrainians from joining the army. It is on this fear that Russia is banking on to continue to gain ground.
* Due to war propaganda, the number of injured Ukrainian soldiers and civilians is kept secret by the authorities. The most reliable estimates, however, put it at 400,000.
