She watched a Russian bomb land near her son — and change their lives

LECZNA, Poland — Hanna Sokolova will never forget the day when her son nearly died.

It was June 27, 2022 — three months into the Russian invasion of her homeland.

Artem Sokolov was with friends on a playground near their home in Kharkiv, Ukraine, when cluster bombs rained down around them. To her horror, she watched as a small bomb landed at Artem’s feet.

“The explosion ripped off a part of his arm,” she said with her hands clasped in front of her as if in prayer.

Neither she nor Artem’s friends were hurt — at least not physically — but the shelling struck courtyards throughout the area. Six Ukrainians died in the attack and many others were injured, Sokolova said.

She found her boy unconscious.

Though it was obvious that Artem’s left arm had been badly injured in the blast, Sokolova, 38, soon realized her son also was wounded in ways she couldn’t see.

“He was in coma,” she said. “He had to be resuscitated. His internal organs were severely damaged.”

Doctors: We can ‘save his life, but not his arm’

Because cluster bombs release explosives as they fall, showering grenade-like bomblets across hundreds of feet, humanitarian groups say using them against civilians is a war crime. More than 100 countries have joined a convention banning the use of cluster bombs — though neither Russia nor Ukraine have joined that convention. The U.S. hasn’t, either.

Artem underwent several surgeries, Sokolova said, and was transferred to a hospital in Lviv, in the far western part of Ukraine, where he was hospitalized for three months. 

More: US doctors travel to edge of war zone to care for burned Ukrainian children

Doctors told her they could “save his life, but not his arm,” she said. “That hand turned out to be nonworking and remained so.”

It wasn’t until the end of September that Artem was well enough to return home to Kharkiv.

“We wanted to go home,” Sokolova said — even though the city is about 10 miles from the border with Russia, even though it faced ongoing attacks.

“I have an older daughter there,” Sokolova said. “All of our family is in Kharkiv. Our part of city is not so heavily bombed.”

Artem began rehabilitation to improve function in his left hand and arm, but, she said, “doctors suggested that the process is pointless. … Artem needs a surgery.”

Doctors and the family had little hope for surgery for Artem in Ukraine, however, as the war dragged on.

Group of US doctors provide a glimmer of hope

It was through a chain of acquaintances, friends, and doctors that Sokolova said she heard about the work of Dr. Gennadiy Fuzaylov, a Boston-based physician and philanthropist who founded Doctors Collaborating to Help Children, and his mission trips to help children like Artem.

For more than a decade, the nonprofit organization has provided plastic and reconstructive surgery during annual trips to Ukraine to provide plastic and reconstructive surgery to children who’ve been severely burned or have congenital anomalies that affect their ability to function. Not only do they provide procedures that are not available in Ukraine; the American physicians also offer training and education in collaboration with Ukrainian doctors.

When the war started, Fuzaylov said he could not risk a mission trip in a nation under siege. So instead, a medical team of 10 U.S. physicians and a certified nurse anesthetist traveled to eastern Poland, and Ukrainian children like Artem were brought across the border for surgeries spanning five days in mid-May.

Artem’s procedure took place May 15 at the Independent Public Health Care Facility in Leczna, a 400-bed hospital with one of the largest burn treatment centers in Poland. 

In addition to thick scar tissue on his forearm, Artem also had nerve damage.

A group of plastic surgeons — Dr. Shawn Diamond, a plastic surgeon with Texas Tech Physicians of El Paso; Dr. Alfred Yoon a chief resident from the University of Michigan; Dr. Brian Kelley of the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical Center; and Dr. Eric Wenzinger, a senior medical resident from Massachusetts General Hospital — examined Artem’s injured arm. They agreed to take nerve tissue from his lower left leg and graft into his arm.

“We need to reconstruct the nerves,” Diamond said, to help Artem regain function in his left hand. They formed two teams to complete the work.

Yoon marked some spots above Artem’s left ankle, where he later would make an incision to remove nerve tissue for the graft.

“One team is doing a revision of the forearm. … The other team is harvesting the sural nerve on the leg,” said Dr. Tomasz Korzeniowski, vice chair of plastic surgery at the Polish hospital.

It took nearly three hours to complete the procedure. Two days later, Artem was well enough to join friends at a hotel near the hospital, where he and other Ukrainian families stayed while in recovery.

His arm and leg were bandaged, but he still managed to play games on a smartphone with three other boys in the hotel lounge. 

“He is feeling OK,” his mother said. “His arm is a bit in pain, but overall, he feels fine.”

The best part: With proper rehabilitation, doctors told her, “the arm should be operating within six months.”

Zuza Nikitorowicz translated interviews for this story.

Published
9:34 am UTC May. 24, 2023
Updated
9:34 am UTC May. 24, 2023