LAKE ELMO, Minn. — For the past few weeks, Artem Svergon has worked relentlessly inside a Lake Elmo rehabilitation clinic with the goal of walking independently.
Just 16 months ago, Svergon’s goals looked much, much different.
“This is me,” Svergon said, pointing out several photos of himself with friends on soccer fields in Ukraine. "Before our war, I played professional football."
His playing career came to an end abruptly just a week into the Russian invasion.
“(We) went into the locker rooms to change and the Russians – from a drone - dropped a mine down,” Svergon said, through an interpreter. "The mine hit right where my friend was."
In an instant, Svergon says he lost his friend, lost part of his leg, and lost feeling below his waist.
Though, he survived the blast, he says he wasn’t sure he’d survive his first few weeks in a Mariupol hospital, as Russian forces closed in on the city.
"There were times where people would get shot... in the hospital,” he said.
Fortunately, in the months that followed, he was evacuated to Germany and – as he began his rehabilitation – he happened to find an Instagram Reel produced by the Protez Foundation while scrolling through his phone one day.
For more than a year, the foundation has been flying Ukrainian soldiers into Minnesota to get fitted for state-of-the-art prosthetics and undergo rehabilitation.
"I saw that (Ukrainians) could send an application in and so I filled it out,” Svergon said.
Just days later, Svergon learned that the Protez Foundation would explore working with him. This May, he was greeted with fanfare in Minnesota, as one of the first Ukrainian civilians to join the dozens of soldiers the foundation has already helped.
"We decided, 'Okay, we're going to give him a chance,” said Yakov Gradinar, Chief Medical Officer for the Protez Foundation.
Not only did the foundation fit Svergon for a new prosthetic, it also equipped him with a smart brace that supports his paralyzed leg and alerts him when to swing his hip and initiate a step that he wouldn't otherwise sense.
"It's so awesome,” Gradinar said. “It's working. He still is learning how to use it, but he's walking. You can see that smile. Each day he's more up and upright.”
Kent Erdahl: "How does it feel?"
Artem Svergon: "Hard. It’s Hard. But every day I make progress. I am working with my prosthetics now and that's giving me confidence. I'm able to walk… feel more manly.”
Erdahl: "How are you doing?"
Svergon: "Good. I'm very thankful to God that he didn't leave me in that moment, and that I was able to leave. He's here right now and he's giving him a second chance at life. I have people around me and support, and I'm very happy that everything is happening right now."
He also says he feels fortunate to be in select company. Though the Protez Foundation has already flown 90 Ukrainians to Minnesota and fitted them with more than 200 prosthetics, he is one of just four civilians. For perspective, Gradinar says the Foundation currently has nearly 900 wounded Ukrainians on a waiting list hoping to join him.
Gradinar says accommodating so many requests will take more staff and more money to support the need for prosthetics. He says it took nearly $60,000 to bring Svergon to Minnesota and outfit him with his new equipment, and there is still fundraising left to get him fully equipped.
If you are interested in donating, click here.
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