9:16 p.m. ET, February 17, 2023
Ukrainian soldier was told his legs could be amputated. A New York hospital might help him walk again
From CNN's Omar Jimenez
Vladyslav Orlov sits in his hospital bed after two major reconstructive surgeries.
(Omar Jimenez/CNN)
Vladyslav Orlov, an officer in Ukraine’s national guard, didn’t see what hit him, but the next thing he knew, the car he was traveling in last October was rolling over and in flames. He suspected Russian gunfire.
Pinned in the back seat, Orlov says he was initially unable to get out of the vehicle – his feet had been crushed by the car and his legs had been wounded by the explosion. Once he finally did, he and his team lay in the nearby grass watching the flames and figuring out their next steps, in disbelief they had survived.
“Sometimes I really don’t understand what has happened with me, I’m still somewhere on another planet,” Orlov, 27, told CNN.
He was eventually taken to a Ukrainian hospital. He was told he may need to have at least one leg amputated or that he may never walk again, in part due to
inundated hospitals and strains on resources after months of war.
He was told the focus was to save his life, not necessarily his limbs.
“(There are) a lot of wounded guys, you know?” Orlov said. “Our doctors, everybody (is) working hard like from morning to evening, working absolutely hard but (there’s) no free space, ya know? (There’s not) enough medicine because it’s war,” he said in limited English.
So began the pursuit of another option – any option.
Ashley Matkowsky, Orlov’s American girlfriend and a videographer who had been working in Ukraine, recorded what Orlov looked like after the attack.
That video caught the attention of some US volunteers and eventually made its way to
Gary Wasserson, a retired American businessman from New York who was already coordinating volunteer aid resources to the region.
“I sprung into action and started making calls in the United States,” Wasserson told CNN.
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