LECZNA, Poland — Karolina Petrenko was with her older brother, Zhenia, and a friend at a cargo train station in Ukraine when she pulled out her cellphone and did what many teenagers do multiple times a day: She took a selfie.
That ordinary act had a disastrous outcome. As a train passed nearby, an electrical current arced to her phone, sending 25,000 volts of electricity through her 13-year-old body.
“She caught on fire,” said her mother, Vitalina Petrenko, 38. “Zhenia ripped off her burning clothes and shoes. At the beginning she was in shock. … Then she lost consciousness. While falling to the ground, she hit her head on a stone.
“Seventy-five percent of her body was burned, 25% of which were severe burns.”
In many ways, Sept. 9, 2019, was the worst day of their lives. But it also set them on a new, unexpected path.
‘We went through everything imaginable … we do not give up’
Standing beside her daughter’s hospital bed in eastern Poland last week, Vitalina Petrenko pushed up the sleeves of her pink sweater, showing the tattoos on her forearms. On the right is the phoenix, rising from the ashes. On the left, the images of fierce creatures — a dragon and a wolf — are tattooed above the infinity symbol.
“Infinite love, which inspires and saves, which conquers everything,” she said. “My tattoos resemble what I have been through. … We went through everything imaginable. We even ended up on the streets one day, but as you can see, we do not give up. We fight!”
Mandi Wright, Detroit Free Press
Petrenko is raising her children alone — Zhenia, 18; Karolina, now 16; and Anhelina, 11. It’s been very difficult financially, she said. When Russia invaded Ukraine, Petrenko said she knew the family couldn’t stay in Cherkasy, where Karolina was burned.
More: US doctors travel to edge of war zone to care for burned Ukrainian children
More: A burned little girl and her great-grandmother: ‘We will handle this’
They fled to Poland and settled in Warsaw, where Petrenko and Zhenia now have jobs; Karolina and Anhelina go to school.
“Since day one, I worked,” Petrenko said. “Some refugees used free accommodations or food, but not us. No one supported us. No one funded our stay here. We paid for ourselves since the very start.”
Karolina is an artist, though the burn scars on her hands have bent and twisted her fingers so it’s difficult to hold her colored pencils. She loves to ride scooters, bicycles and roller skates, though the skin on much of her upper body is tight because it is contracting as she grows.
TOP: Vitalina Petrenko, 38, shows a photo of artwork created by her daughter, Karolina Petrenko, 16, of Cherkasy, Ukraine, as she recovers from a surgery that released her fingers that were trapped in burn scar tissue contractures at the Independent Public Health Care Facility by in Leczna, Poland, on Friday, May 19, 2023. BOTTOM: Vitalina Petrenko, 38, holds her daughter, Karolina Petrenko, 16, both originally from Cherkasy, Ukraine, but now living in Warsaw, Poland, as they wait to be seen by doctors to screen Karolina for a surgery on her burn scar tissue to free her fingers on both hands outside of a hotel in Leczna, Poland, on Sunday, May 14, 2023. Karolina Petrenko suffered burns over 75% of her body when she was shocked by a current of a passing train on Sept. 9, 2019, while taking a selfie.
LEFT: Vitalina Petrenko, 38, shows a photo of artwork created by her daughter, Karolina Petrenko, 16, of Cherkasy, Ukraine, as she recovers from a surgery that released her fingers that were trapped in burn scar tissue contractures at the Independent Public Health Care Facility by in Leczna, Poland, on Friday, May 19, 2023. RIGHT: Vitalina Petrenko, 38, holds her daughter, Karolina Petrenko, 16, both originally from Cherkasy, Ukraine, but now living in Warsaw, Poland, as they wait to be seen by doctors to screen Karolina for a surgery on her burn scar tissue to free her fingers on both hands outside of a hotel in Leczna, Poland, on Sunday, May 14, 2023. Karolina Petrenko suffered burns over 75% of her body when she was shocked by a current of a passing train on Sept. 9, 2019, while taking a selfie.
Mandi Wright, Detroit Free Press
Converging in eastern Poland for critical surgeries
It was through a co-worker that Petrenko first heard Dr. Gennadiy Fuzaylov’s name.
Fuzaylov, a Boston-based physician who also founded a nonprofit organization called Doctors Collaborating to Help Children, has traveled annually for more than a decade to Ukraine with a team of U.S. physicians to provide free plastic and reconstructive surgery to children with burn scars and congenital abnormalities that affect their ability to function.
But because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Fuzaylov came up with a different plan this year. The medical team of 10 U.S. physicians and a certified nurse anesthetist traveled to eastern Poland in mid-May while 17 Ukrainian children were brought over the Polish border to meet the physicians at the Independent Public Health Care Facility in the city of Leczna.
Three other Ukrainian children, including Karolina, also traveled to Leczna from other parts of Poland and the Netherlands, where they are living as refugees as part of the historic mission.
Karolina’s turn for a long-awaited surgery came May 16. She was brought into the operating room on a stretcher, tucked beneath a metallic gold sheet to keep her warm. Dr. Jeremi Mountjoy, an anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Dr. Christopher Bean, an anesthesiology medical resident at the same hospital, prepared her for surgery.
“Her hands have almost zero function,” said Dr. Brian Kelley, a plastic surgeon from the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical Center.
Mandi Wright, Detroit Free Press
Music pumped into the operating room. Tina Turner’s voice sang “What’s love got to do with it” as doctors worked, using grafting skin on Karolina’s hands to allow her to fully open and close them again. They placed temporary pins into her fingers to straighten them while also releasing contractures in her hands, on her arms and neck, said Dr. Tomasz Korzeniowski, vice chair of plastic surgery at the Polish hospital.
Karolina also had laser treatments to soften and improve the appearance of her burn scars. The pins in her fingers will remain in place for two to three weeks, Kelley said, and will be removed after she returns to Warsaw.
When Karolina was brought into the surgical recovery room, Bean monitored her for any signs of distress.
He noticed Petrenko looking worried, standing by Karolina’s bedside stroking her daughter’s blond-tipped hair as the anesthesia wore off. Though they shared no common language, and he couldn’t offer consoling words, he brought her a stool so she could sit.
Mandi Wright, Detroit Free Press
In that moment, kindness transcended the language barrier.
Petrenko said she knows Karolina will need more surgeries to improve her quality of life, but, she said, “as long as I have strength, I will do everything possible to make my child healthy. … I fight alone. We go through problems together, me and the children. People used to tell me, ‘You are strong,’ but do I have any other option?”
Zuza Nikitorowicz translated interviews for this story.
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