The Prometheus Pain Treatment and Rehabilitation Center has been opened in Vinnytsia, UNN reports, citing the Vinnytsia City Council.
Details
All services are free of charge for participants of the war in Ukraine. The center will provide assistance to clients on modern equipment, using leading foreign practices, including VR technologies.
Nikita Makazan became one of the first patients of the institution. The man is from Mariupol. Since the beginning of the great war, he served in one of the separate airborne brigades of the Airborne Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Last summer, he was wounded and had his right lower limb amputated.
The man says he felt constant pain that made him unable to sleep.
"I never thought VR technologies could heal before. In fact, everything is completely different. Because your brain is focused on the pain all the time, you can't just take your mind off of it and do something else. VR helps you stop focusing on the pain, and your brain switches its attention to other tasks. The body gets used to this state and the phantom pain almost disappears. I felt the results after the first session," says the veteran.
After gaining his own experience of dealing with phantom pain with the help of VR, Mykyta was offered a job at the center. Now he will help other military personnel overcome pain with the help of modern technology.
The center's chief specialist is Dmytro Dmitriev. He is a doctor of medicine and professor at Vinnytsia National Medical University. At the center, he treats phantom and chronic pain, as well as other types of pain syndrome.
"Today, unfortunately, there is a very large flow of wounded guys and girls. And hospitals simply do not have time to treat various types of pain syndromes. And someone has to do it, because the percentage of chronicity after injury is about 60-70%. That is, if a soldier is wounded, six out of ten people will have chronic pain syndrome," the doctor says.
The Prometheus Center plans to collect all the innovative technologies for treating pain syndrome, using, in particular, foreign experience. In most cases, it is the United States and Israel, which have been in military conflicts for decades. The center is being developed with grant funds and thanks to the support of charitable foundations and organizations.
In particular, the Podil Agency for Regional Development, the NGO of people with disabilities "Samopomich", the UN International Organization for Migration, the Veterans Fund, MHP-Community, Rotary Club Vinnytsia, Vinnytsia Business Club, NGO "Vinnytsia Business Club", and NGO "PARR".
Reference
"MHP-Hromadas is a Ukrainian charitable foundation that started its operations in 2015. Its main mission is the comprehensive development of communities. The geography of its activities includes 12 regions of Ukraine: more than 700 towns and villages. Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Foundation has been systematically supporting people in the war zone, Ukrainian defenders and rescuers, communities, hospitals and maternity homes, charitable institutions that care for orphans and the elderly, as well as people who have lost their homes and livelihoods due to the war.