“Do you have a wheelchair?”
I was about to answer when little Zemfira leaned against the column, which was preventing her from falling, and continued with a sigh: “It’s so difficult without a wheelchair. You can’t take a step.”
Zemfira’s mother, a diminutive beauty with slanting eyes, swept her into her arms and said, on the verge of tears: “The lady doesn’t need a wheelchair, nobody does. God willing, neither will you need one.”
Aliya Tuliepova came to Ukraine all the way from Russia’s Orenburg oblast, after seeing Doctor Koziavkin on television. She took a calculated risk, as nobody she knows has ever received treatment here. She believed what she saw on a television program that enjoys a lot of credibility in Russia.
Meanwhile, Frau Mutt, who has been here with her son several times, frequently tried convincing her German companions in distress by relating her own experience: “Just look at Karsten! Do you see how he’s changed? So take your children to Ukraine as soon as possible!”
These women met at a rehabilitation center for young victims of car accidents. They were ready to travel to the back of beyond to help their children. Marline Danemann, for one, says she will be coming here for as long as she sees improvements. Moreover, she loves it here and thinks that there’s no other center like this one. No other place has such superb design and service, perhaps only in Saudi Arabia. But then they don’t have a Dr. Koziavkin!
We sat drinking coffee in a grand hall, in chairs upholstered in lemon-colored leather, with stained-glass chandeliers overhead. I could see my reflection in the perfectly polished floors, and the transparent walls created the impression that I was floating among the Carpathian hills — I was truly amazed to see all this picture-perfect scenery.
Yet dОcor and landscape alone would not make this place worth a dime if it weren’t for the fact that children from over thirty countries come here for treatment. The clinic’s design also serves a therapeutic purpose. It is clear that thrifty Germans would not travel all this way without good reason. And the fact that even they are placed on a waiting list, but not a long one, speaks volumes. They come here because of the unique treatment technique that has earned international recognition: a system of intensive neurophysiological rehabilitation for patients suffering from cerebral palsy, spinal osteochondrosis, results of injuries, and other organic disorders of the nervous system.
“Of course, the method is based on classic therapeutic gymnastics, but we have introduced our own elements,” says Stepan Hordiyovych, Meritorious Doctor of Ukraine and deputy director of the clinic. “This produces its own results. The method is aimed at increasing the range of movement in peripheral joints, legs, and arms. No one else in the world is doing anything like this. Fifteen years ago we were also the first in the world to begin using elements of manual therapy, and to carry out biomechanical spinal corrections in children with cerebral palsy, which was also considered impossible in the past. Coupled with mobilizing gymnastics, reflexive therapy, and a special massage system, our system produces steady results. Every practicing doctor here has published ten to twenty interesting articles and has his own patents. Of course, we use state-of-the-art equipment, but many of our devices are made by us.”
We took a tour of the clinic, which can accommodate 120 patients at a time, and realized that it must expand, as it cannot cater to all those who need treatment. A semi-basement room will soon be turned into a games room for children of all ages. A construction project is underway nearby. This is the future hydrotherapy unit: a complex of several pools with various types of water for different therapeutic procedures. The clinic also plans to resume the practice of administering hydrogen sulfide baths. (While Naftusia mineral water is a household name in Ukraine, few people know that Truskavets began as a hydrogen sulfide spa under Austro-Hungary). I know about a new facility on the Azov seacoast near Henichesk, where a new method of dolphin therapy is being introduced. There is a nearby source of healing water bubbling up from a depth of 1,200 meters. Hot spring water is beneficial for the clinic’s patients. If everything goes well, a year and a half from now these myriad plans will be brought to life.
I find it hard to believe that some thirteen years ago I was writing about the same Volodymyr Koziavkin, director of the same rehabilitation center, which in those days was housed in a cramped building in Lviv. Of course, it was neat and renovated, but on a very small scale — nothing in comparison with what it has become today. Back then the complex in Truskavets was not even under construction, and Dr. Koziavkin was yet to be awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine. But in my mind’s eye I could see this coming because he radiated so much buoyancy and enthusiasm, as well as selfless willingness to help.
Incidentally, the old unit in Lviv’s Chornovola Street is also functioning. It provides early rehabilitation to four- and five-month-old children, because the sooner you begin treating cerebral palsy, the better the results. In fact, according to the clinic’s doctors, it is possible to cure a child, if not completely then by 90%, if the child is less than one year old. A few years ago international practitioners said this was out of the question.
Statistics of the past twelve years suggest that treatment of infants with spastic forms of cerebral palsy reduced muscle spasticity in 94% of the clinic’s patients, while 91% increased their range of active movements, 75% of patients with no prior head control began to hold their heads up while lying on their stomach, 62% of children began to sit and 28% to crawl, 41% learned to stand, and 19% to walk without assistance.
There is no need to explain what it means for a mother to put her child on his feet. We heard a German woman saying in amazement that after the first course of treatment her daughter’s headaches completely stopped, whereas before she could not live without pills. After a car accident her daughter was in a coma for a long time, and later could neither talk nor walk, because she kept falling all the time. Now she can talk and walk, but with some effort. They came to Truskavets for a second time. “We think that Ukraine will put us on our feet,” Halyna Rafflen said.
Although foreigners constitute a majority of those receiving bed and board at the clinic, there is an equal ratio of Ukrainian and foreign patients undergoing treatment. Ukrainians mostly rent rooms in Truskavets and travel to the clinic every day, which is something none of them complains about, as they feel lucky to be here. In the past six months 250 Ukrainian children have received free treatment at the clinic. Interestingly enough, during every session the clinic receives one or two local children from Truskavets, Drohobych, and Boryslav. Each of the twenty-four local children suffering from cerebral palsy is a regular patient at the clinic.
Ukrainian children receive treatment at the lowest prices. Russians pay $2,000 for twelve days, while Germans and Americans (during the last session there were sixteen patients from the US) pay over $4,500. This is inexpensive compared to medical costs overseas.
It would be incorrect to say that the government is indifferent to the rehabilitation of disabled children. In 2000 the Ministry of Health developed a concept for early rehabilitation of such children, while in 2001 the government endorsed the National Program for Professional Rehabilitation and Employment of the Physically Challenged for 2001-2005. The government has decided to open social rehabilitation centers for the physically challenged in all towns with a population of over 50,000. Today regional employment centers coordinate 177 centers for the early social rehabilitation of disabled children. Overall, Ukraine has 470 rehabilitation centers with different specializations and types of ownership, including 238 rehabilitation centers at employment and social protection agencies, 52 medical establishments, 52 educational institutions, 36 family and youth centers, and 92 civic and religious organizations, and charitable foundations.
Nevertheless, the rehabilitation clinic in Truskavets is unique — proof of which is the fact that it recently hosted a joint session of the Parliamentary Committee for Pensioners, Veterans, and the Disabled, and the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy. The participants agreed unanimously that to speed up the process of budget allocations for rehabilitation centers for the physically challenged and children with disabilities, lawmakers must request the parliamentary budget committee to assign the highest priority to a number of bills, in particular the bill “On the Rehabilitation of the Disabled in Ukraine,” and pass the necessary amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine. According to Labor and Social Policy Minister Mykhailo Papiyev, an important decision has been made to create an academy of rehabilitation in Ukraine, which will be involved in research and development projects. All rehabilitation centers will become part of an integrated system and will operate on an equal footing. One of the key institutions will be Dr. Koziavkin’s rehabilitation treatment clinic. “I will also propose that this clinic and all others be exempted from all taxes,” the minister said.
Almost every oblast center in Ukraine has rehabilitation centers that operate at quite a high level. Today such institutions receive funding from regional budgets. Dr. Koziavkin’s clinic, however, operates on a self-supporting basis. Therefore, there is a need to channel budgetary monies not only to state and municipal clinics, but also to private clinics, says Papiyev, adding that such clinics should compete for budget funding through tenders: “Those who offer better quality and higher end results will receive more funds. This should serve as a stimulus for development, and in this way it will be possible to increase the number of children who receive free treatment at such clinics as the one in Truskavets.”
