Editor’s Note: Ukraine's Heroes is a Kyiv Post project devoted to Ukrainian army heroes injured in Russia's war against the nation. Periodically we will tell the stories of these wounded warriors, many of whom need money for treatment, surgeries and prosthesis. At least 594 soldiers have been killed and 2,210 injured in the war so far.
Alla Zahasaylo from Lviv says she is not saying the word “death” out loud, as it came too close to her child. Her son, Serhiy Zahasaylo, 23, a soldier from Lviv, was heavily injured in fighting near Sloviansk on May 24 and is still in the intensive care room.
Doctors have been fighting for his life for months, his mother says.
When a live grenade was thrown into the soldiers’ shelter, Zahasaylo covered the others with his own body and was almost killed. The debris penetrated his shoulder, broke his right arm, bones in both of his feet and wounded his lower leg muscles and tendons. His right eye is damaged. Perhaps most seriously, he is suffering brain damage.
“There is progress now though,” Zahasaylo’s mother smiles. “He recognized me, and his sister and his girlfriend. He met her during EuroMaidan, by the way,” she said, referring to the protests that succeeded in ousting President Viktor Yanukovych on Feb. 22.
The young man was in coma for more than three weeks. He has lost his memory about many things, including war.
“Or at least we don’t know how much he remembers and don’t want to remind,” his mother says. The soldier’s relatives try to remind him only pleasant moments.
“Lately we showed him photographs of EuroMaidan times and he remembered,” his mother says. Zahasaylo was an active revolution participant and a EuroMaidan self-defense member. “He lived at Maidan for two months,” the woman says.
The soldier’s mother said she could not stop her son from joining the army. “He loved army service, it was his childhood dream and when in March he was offered a job in Lviv airborne brigade he accepted it without hesitation,” Alla Zahasaylo says.
She says her son might be transferred to a normal hospital room in a couple of weeks. But years of rehabilitation are still to come. And hundreds of thousands of dollars to be spend on the treatment.
The family is still waiting for financial help from the state.
“No one knows when the pension or at least some state insurance funds will come and it’s been three months since we are waiting for them,” the woman explains. Thanks to volunteers, Alla Zahasaylo has found a place to stay in Kyiv.
But she is still happy.
“He is alive what else can I wish for now,” she says and hurries to see her son before he wakes up.
The following are bank details of Serhiy Zahasaylo’s relatives and their contact information.
Privat Bank Card
5168 7572 6138 0853
Receiver: Olena Volodymyrivna Zahasaylo (sister)
Account number: 29244825509100
Bank code: 305299
Enterprize code: 14360570
TIN: 3470900904
Contact number: +38068 168 39 20 (Alla Zahasaylo, mother)
Faebook page: https://www.facebook.com/alla.mohort
E-mail: [email protected]
Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected]
