Soldier Vadym Svyrydenko

I, Vadym Vasylovich Svyrydenko, was born on April 17, 1973, in Kyiv.

I trained as a paramedic, completed mandatory military service, and worked as a paramedic in Pavlov Psychiatric Hospital. I graduated from the university in economics and got married. I worked selling and marketing a newspaper in one of the printing houses in Kyiv.

I was mobilized in the summer of 2014.

When the draft papers came, I realized I had to go discreetly to the Military Registration and Enlistment Office because my wife wouldn’t let me go there willingly. 
During the war, I was a medical instructor in the 128th mountain infantry brigade. I went as a private, but when my documents were renewed, I turned out to be a sergeant for unspecified reasons.
 

In February 2015, our brigade was in the Debal’tseve region. We realized we were in a «cauldron» and surrounded.    

On February 16, 2015, I and a group of fighters were sent to help a nearby army checkpoint that could soon be encircled. On the way to the checkpoint, our Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) was shot down by an enemy tank. I was wounded in the right forearm and thigh. In the dugout, where the first aid station was set up, Uzhhorod doctor Oleksandr Danylyuk stitched up my wounds. On the evening of February 16, they sent me to Artemivsk (historically and since 2016 known as Bakhmut) with the other wounded. The IFV in which I rode, along with the entire convoy, was blown up by mines. In total, there were 14 wounded in the convoy. After the convoy was destroyed, the remaining wounded were loaded into the back of a Ural truck, which was still “in operation.” After all of the wounded were transferred, the truck began to reverse, and a second explosion followed immediately. I hurt my back and got shell shock. Now we were unable to move anywhere.

Me and my commander Denys, whose legs were wounded, climbed into the cab with blown out windows, took blankets, and covered ourselves. I told him that the main thing was not to fall asleep. All night I could hear people moaning, but we were physically unable to help them. I could hardly move at all. While trying to get up, I kept falling to my knees and losing consciousness.

When I regained consciousness later in the morning, I didn’t hear a single sound. Everyone had frozen to death. The temperature then was about 20 degrees below zero. I was left alone. Denys, who was next to me, had also died. This happened right in front of my eyes. He spread his arms and then collapsed. I heard his last breath...

I remember the details of the events after February 17, 2015, in a fragmented way because I was losing consciousness too often.

I realized I couldn’t walk. When conscious, I tried to call the guys from the medical company and explain where I was (while I could feel my hands and the phone was working). I covered my head and breathed, warming the air so I would not freeze.

I did not think about death. The struggle for survival started inside me. In such a situation, your primitive instincts awaken, and everything else turns off on a subconscious level. Consciousness seems to atrophy. Actions are reduced to mechanical. “Two hundred” ones (military for dead) are lying around me, but there are no emotions. I looked at the dead commander with whom I had been talking, I looked at the human corpses, and understood one thing: I needed to save myself.

I crawled “on all fours” and ate snow. I gnawed on frozen honey and biscuits that I found in other soldiers’ backpacks. I was still losing strength and getting weaker. It was difficult for me when I fell asleep because the dreams were torturing me, and I would wake up extremely drained. I continued trying to stand up and take 3-4 steps, but then I was falling again and again. There was no panic; there was only one feeling: I will keep myself alive as long as I can.

On February 20, 2015, I was found by a group of “DPR” (Donetsk People’s Republic) scouts. Then I realized that my limbs were frostbitten - my hands had turned black, even though I had tried to tuck them under my jacket to warm them up, but when I was losing consciousness, I kept falling to the ground, not knowing for how long I had stayed in that position.

I raised my hand, showing that I was surrendering, and they told me: “Get up!” I said that I could not. Then they told me to crawl, and I began to crawl. Then they threw me into an armoured IFV and took me to occupied Donetsk.

There, like other prisoners, I was searched. They found a military ID card indicating that I was a medic, and first aid was provided. Within a day, I was handed over to the Ukrainian side as seriously injured with 4th-degree frostbite and sepsis.

First, I was transported to Dnipro and then to Kyiv two days later. The doctors performed the surgery. I lost my hands and feet but overcame sepsis and gas gangrene on the hand. They just poured buckets of antibiotics into me. The doctors fought for my life for a whole month.

They saved me. Then I was accompanied to the USA for treatment and prosthetics. There I learned to walk on prostheses and use artificial hands. Rehabilitation at Walter Reed Hospital lasted for 8 months, where I 
completely recovered. Learned to run, lift a barbell, and swim. In 2016, I won the 41st US Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., running 10 km.
 

Now I live a full life. I am raising two daughters. I volunteer in my local community and help with the rehabilitation of combatants.

Unfortunately, prostheses have a limited working life. When this runs out, they must be replaced. It’s now time for me to replace my prosthetic hands.
 

COLLECTED AND TRANSFERRED: UAH 338,242.04

THANK YOU!

On the recommendation of prosthetists, based on the patient's medical conditions and needs, it was decided to improve the functionality of the prostheses by installing 10S17 rotators worth UAH 150,000. 
The rotators will allow the hands to rotate 360 degrees, which will significantly improve the process of using the prostheses.

TOTAL  COLLECTED AND TRANSFERRED: UAH 488,242.04

DONE, THANK YOU!