Віталій Охтименко - врятувати ногу

Англійська версія

Open Letter to Haemophilia Community

My name is Vitaly Ohtimenko, I am 35 years old, live in Kryvy Rih, Ukraine, and have a hemophilia, a bleeding disorder.

Due to frequent spontaneous hemorrhages in joints and muscles, and lack of appropriate treatment, I used to suffer acute pain. But now the situation is no more intolerable.

Last year, on 29 October, 2018, I had fallen and got a fracture in left hip bone. I still in hospital right now, 9 September, 2019. Doctors refused to do surgery to fix my bones with bone screws, and instead I was chained to a bed in attempt of skeletal traction for two months. It was unsuccessful. Fractures of the bone were displaced even more severely, their sharp edges press on surrounding muscles and cause intolerable pain.

Then doctors applied scotch-cast, a plastic splint, to fix fractures. It was also unsuccessful, as now bones press on the splint edges, causing even more pain.

The main reason why doctors in my city never attempted a surgery in my case is my hemophilia. My blood do not clot properly, so they afraid of great blood loss during the surgery. It will require a great amount of factor VIII concentrate, an expensive medication I need to inject all my life to ensure good clotting.Another reason is my hepatitis C. Previously, they used cryoprecipitate and human plasma to stop my bleedings, and I contracted hepatitis C virus via those blood products. Currently it affected my liver, where clotting factors are produced, and this further worsened my haemostasis. In addition I have a platelet disorder, low platelet numbers, which are necessary for good clot formation.
I find myself in a deadlock. Previously they never offered me proper treatment, and used contaminated blood to treat me, and infected me with a virus. Now this is the main reason not to allow me a surgery, and I can't understand why I destined for a pain for the rest of my life?
There is good medication for blood clotting now, and there is good medication for hepatitis C treatment. But all this is not available for me because doctors refuse to provide me a comprehensive care of my condition.
I need to eliminate hepatitis C, I need to obtain great amount of clotting factor concentrate, but where can I find a good surgeon who will take responsibility and do a surgery for my leg?
I would be grateful for any kind of help to you: even advice on how can I proceed to find a solution for my situation. Maybe such condition is not a problem in other countries. I hope this can be done in Ukraine.
- Vitaly