German engineering helps amputees walk again

Published August 5, 2024
Berlin: Double amputee Vitaliy Saiko, a veteran of the war in Ukraine, trains with orthopaedic technician Michael Koehler (left) in a prosthetics centre.—AFP
Berlin: Double amputee Vitaliy Saiko, a veteran of the war in Ukraine, trains with orthopaedic technician Michael Koehler (left) in a prosthetics centre.—AFP

BERLIN: Double amputee Vitaliy Saiko, a veteran of the war in Ukraine, compares the artificial limbs made for him by a Berlin-based prosthetics specialist to a sports car.

“This is individual work. It’s like making a Lamborghini, it’s assembled according to the client’s order,” Saiko said. The 42-year-old is among the first patients to be fitted for new prostheses in Germany with the help of an initiative to bring better care to Ukrainian amputees.

Russia’s invasion has killed thousands and left many more with life-changing injuries. The World Health Organisation said in May that more than 20,000 amputations had been carried out there since February 2022. But effective treatment for such severe injuries is often lacking in Ukraine.

“There is better knowledge here (in Germany) on how to make a unique prosthesis,” according to Janine von Wolfersdorff, whose organisation Life Bridge Ukraine is behind the programme. So far, her organisation has brought around 40 amputees to Germany for care, as well as six trainees, who will return to Ukraine with new expertise.

Walking on the prostheses is an “unusual sensation”, said Saiko, but the former soldier is satisfied. “I was not walking at all, I was confined to a wheelchair,” said Saiko, who has undergone more than 15 operations and months of rehabilitation since losing his legs in combat last year. Three months after coming to Berlin, Saiko said he feels “complete again”, he said.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2024

Opinion

Editorial

Errant ECP
Updated 22 Jan, 2025

Errant ECP

THE ECP has once again earned a detailed reprimand from the Supreme Court. That it still refuses to correct course is ominous
Fast-tracking M6
Updated 22 Jan, 2025

Fast-tracking M6

GRAND infrastructure projects in Pakistan often progress at the pace of a bullock cart rather than a bullet train....
Gwadar airport
Updated 22 Jan, 2025

Gwadar airport

THE air connectivity established by the inauguration of PIA flights between Karachi and Gwadar is a major step...
Trump 2.0
Updated 21 Jan, 2025

Trump 2.0

Few have forgotten how disruptive Trump could be as president. There has been little indication that his 2nd term will be any different.
GB’s status
21 Jan, 2025

GB’s status

THE demand raised by the people of Gilgit-Baltistan for constitutional clarity and provisional provincial status is...
Panda bond
Updated 21 Jan, 2025

Panda bond

ISLAMABAD’S plans to raise $200m from China’s capital markets through the inaugural issue of a Panda bond this...