The Ukrainian medalist of the Paralympics returned vision after 36 years

He was helped by Polish doctors and technology from the USA. Everything changed the invasion of Russia

For 36 years, the Ukrainian judoka-paralympic Sergey Sidorenko was blind. Sidorenko could return his vision - a difficult operation was needed, but in his native Ukraine they were not done. The Russian invasion forced Sidorenko to leave Ukraine with his family and move to Poland. And before Christmas, local experts returned Sergei vision with the help of unique American technology. For the first time in his life, the athlete saw the faces of his wife and children and now every day is amazed at how much the world has changed over 30 years. "Cold" tells the story of a Ukrainian fighter.

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Sergey Sidorenko is from Zhytomyr, from the family of the Soviet military. Since childhood, he was a sports child, he studied judo at school and dreamed of becoming an officer. Therefore, as soon as he was 18 years old, he entered a military school. But in 1986, as a result of the accident that occurred in military service, Sergey received a burn of both eyes and lost his vision. All that he could distinguish after is only movement and light.

The first years after the injury were very difficult for him. Sergey began periods of depression and insomnia. Fortunately, there were loving parents nearby, who put a lot of effort so as not to allow his son to sleep. For some time, Sergey interrupted by random earnings at the Zhytomyr sports academy. It so coincided that a girl named Tamara studied in the same institution. Once on a summer picnic, they talked and soon began to meet. In 1991, when Ukraine became an independent country, Sergey and Tamara got married.

The star of the national team

Remembering that period today, Sergey talks a lot about how important the help for him was to perform even simple tasks. It was very important for him to be useful: for example, he tried to do his homework, but interrupted a huge amount of dishes, trying to wash it. A real savior for him was a local coach who told Sergei about the Paralympic judo and invited him to training.

“We lived next to the stadium, and I went there. Tamara took me away. I had three workouts a day, so there was simply no time for depression, ”says Sergey.

In 1996, Sergei was already part of the Ukrainian national team in judo and went to international competitions, performed in weight categories up to 66 and up to 73 kilograms. He took fourth place in the Paralympic Games in 2000 and 2004, and in 2008 in Beijing he won a bronze medal. A vivid moment in his career was the victory over the British judoka Simon Jackson in 2003 at the World Cup of the International Sports of the Blind in Quebec.

“Jackson went out like Mike Tyson - with all his coaches and masseurs. The whole hall shouted: “Jackson! Jackson!” He won four Paralympic gold ( in fact there are three . - approx. “Cold” ), but I managed to tie it with my crown reception - a “windmill,” said Sergey Sidorenko.

Judo in many ways replaced Sergei's vision. With his help, he learned, for example, to fall safely. It helped overcome the sense of vulnerability - one of the most severe consequences of losing vision. Sergei tells how once, while walking with his wife, a tipsy big man was stuck to them. Sergey to take advantage of sports skills - a moment later the bully was on the asphalt and wondered how a guy of small statues, in black glasses and with a white cane, laid him.

All these years, Sergei admitted , he felt that he was loved and supported, but lost vision still did not allow him to fully enjoy life. Career allowed Sidorenko to travel a lot, but he could not see the places he visited. The faces of loved ones, friends, even wives and children remained only in his memories and imagination. The family knew that Sergei could restore his vision, but no one did such operations in Ukraine, and they did not have the opportunity to go for treatment abroad.

Savior move

When Russia invaded Ukraine, Sergey did not want to leave for a long time, but his wife and daughter convinced him - the three of them moved to the Polish city of Poznan, where a woman named Marta sheltered them in her apartment. The son, mother and younger brother of Sergei were forced to stay in Zhytomyr.

In Poland, Sergei found out about Professor Edward poured from the city of Katowice, which specializes in the corneum of the cornea. The healing heads the ophthalmological clinic of the Medical University of Silesia . It was thanks to him that the center of eye surgery and the possibility of such complex operations appeared in Poland. In 2010, after many years of persuasion of the End, it was possible to convince the class of Dolmann, an ophthalmologist from the Harvard Medical School, to share the technologies of the artificial cornea transplant, which the dolman has not shared with anyone before, which has been the Harvard medical school for more than 60 years retained the exclusive right to technology. As a result, five devices went from the United States to Poland, and since then it has been completing with the team about 100 operations a year.

“When I first examined Sergei's eyes, I saw a couple of heavy curtains there,” Edward explained.

The fact is that the cornea is a transparent domed membrane. And if she loses its transparency, then a person can no longer see. This is exactly what happened to Sergey. During the explosion, which he became a victim of many years ago, warmth and chemicals caused inflammation on his cornea, after which they formed a thick layer of blood vessels, and he lost the opportunity to see.

The Ukrainian Paralympic signed up for examination to the Katowice railway hospital, and after he was appointed an operation to transplant an artificial cornea in mid -December 2022. The first to whom Sergei saw after the operation was the professor, the professor was extinguished, and immediately after him he saw his wife Tamara for the first time in a long time. After removing the bandages from Sergey’s face, he repeated several times: “I see!” It was the moment that he dreamed about 36 years.

Sergey was discharged a few days later with fully restored vision on the right eye. On the street, he was surprised at everything he saw. For example, to modern cars - the last time he could see, most of the cars around were “frets”. Everything carried Sergey so much that he almost late for the train back to Poznan, where Martha and Margarita were already waiting for them at the Christmas table. In the Catholic Christmas Eve, Sergei saw his daughter for the first time in his life.

"It was a Christmas miracle!" He says, remembering this dinner a year later.

In May 2023, Sergey and Tamara returned to Zhytomyr for several days to visit his aging mother, son and younger brother, who is fighting in the Ukrainian army. The visit coincided with Russian missile strikes in the city, but Sergei still took advantage of the chance and, in addition to the family, visited his old friends. “I represented them as they looked in childhood. Now, of course, they look completely different. I do not think that I would have recognized one of them on the street, ”Sidorenko admitted.

Now Sergey hopes for the restoration of the left eye, but does not lose time and continues to reduce the world again. For example, he went to the city of Sopot, located on the Polish coast of the Baltic Sea, and was amazed at the sea. Before that, he swam in the ocean in Brazil and Australia, but did not see water.

Even now, a year after the operation, Sergey sometimes shudders after waking up, wondering if he had all this. In such situations, he quickly raises his right hand, looks at a large birthmark and relaxes: he can still see - a pleasant surprise that now happens to him every day.