The first hearing restoration center for servicemen in Ukraine has opened in Kyiv. The initiative was launched by the Rhino ENT Surgery Clinic with the support of the “Pivnyk” charitable foundation.
“Every day Ukraine faces the terrible consequences of war, and one of the most widespread is hearing loss among soldiers as a result of combat,” said Olena Komar, ENT doctor and director of the “Pivnyk” foundation. “A year ago, within these walls, we performed the first free hearing restoration surgery for a soldier. That was Vladyslav — we all remember him. His first words after the surgery were: ‘Oh God, I can hear you.’ And his wife said that now he would have no excuse for not doing something because he didn’t hear it. That inspired us greatly. At first, we planned to do one or two free surgeries for soldiers each month, but later we realized the scale of the problem and decided to create a dedicated hearing restoration center.”
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Doctors emphasize that while an amputation is visible immediately, hearing loss often goes unnoticed. If a serviceman is not completely deaf, he may not even realize his hearing has deteriorated. This makes timely diagnostics crucial. The center provides this service, noting that in 40% of minor injuries the eardrum can heal on its own. However, when surgery is required, all procedures for servicemen are performed free of charge, with all expenses covered by the “Pivnyk” foundation.
In Ukraine, there are no more than 30 specialists capable of performing hearing restoration surgeries. Because of this shortage, some soldiers wait up to six months for the procedure.
ENT surgeon and founder of the “Pivnyk” foundation, Ivan Hrynko, reminded that since the start of the full-scale invasion, he alone has performed more than 500 hearing restoration surgeries at state medical facilities.
“This is a large-scale problem. The nature of injuries has changed since the beginning of the war. For example, the blast wave from drones completely destroys the eardrum, and the only way to restore it is surgery. At the beginning of the year, Volodymyr Zelensky stated that around 380,000 Ukrainians had been wounded. According to our estimates, more than 30,000 of them require hearing restoration surgery. Currently, about 3,000 such surgeries are performed annually in Ukraine, which is far too few. Knowing this, we launched this initiative. This year we have already performed 100 surgeries for servicemen and plan to increase the number to 1,000 annually,” he said.
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