He is the only person in Russia and the 33rd in the world to receive a donor face. Experts believe that this operation in our country begins a new era of donor tissue transplantation: composite, complex structures. And how does he himself perceive his life before and after what happened?
The injury happened in the army. Electric burn - this is his initial diagnosis. And now, more than three years later, it is no longer possible to establish whether one of the cores of the cable turned out to be working, or suddenly it was energized …
- The worst thing is not injury, - says Nikolay with conviction, - the worst thing is the consequences. In the hospital, one thought tormented me: how will I continue to live like this?
Severe burns, numerous injuries of internal organs, lameness and a defect in his right hand, honestly admitted, did not strain him very much. Perhaps the frivolity of youth was affected? After all, he was only 19 … But the face trauma was terrifying.
I must say, I was horrified when I first saw the photographs of Nikolai before the plastic surgery that made him a unique patient in Russia. Only the eyes remained alive on the face. Everything else was just one bloody pit.
Today a young man sits in front of me, and it is not at all scary to look at him. Well, yes, his large nose is still far from perfect (some swelling and redness are noticeable - a consequence of the medical procedures that Nikolai is undergoing two years after the transplant). There is a swelling in the bridge of the nose - this happens with professional boxers. But a lively look, always ready to smile, a fashionable haircut make my interlocutor quite charming.
I look for traces of another donor face on his face (after all, he, then a 20-year-old boy, had a large and complex flap transplanted from the face of a 54-year-old man who died in an accident), and I don’t find “elderly”. I remind Nikolai that the operation that he eventually underwent was the first in Russia. There are only 33 such patients in the world. Professor Maria Volokh from St. Petersburg Medical University named after Mechnikov and her multidisciplinary team (almost a dozen specialists in different fields!) Transplanted Nikolai's face for three days. And we were preparing for the operation for almost five years, practicing the methods of transplanting a composite flap (with bone tissues, cartilage, muscles, nerves and skin) on animals. Emboldened, I dare to ask the main question:
- How did you feel when they told you that you would live with a donor face?
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- Just think about it - they bring you a salad. Everything is so beautiful, seductive. And think about what these products looked like before? That's it. And with me the same story. A million times a day I decided and re-decided everything, weighed all the pros and cons. Result! The result was important to me, not my health or convenience. But if you think that after taking off the bandages, I immediately felt like a man, then this is also not true. Then I had to undergo one more corrective surgery. And it's not a fact that the last one …
Now Nikolay does not hesitate to go out, ride in transport and even visit nightclubs
But now Nikolai, or, as he calls himself, Kolyan, does not hesitate to go out, ride in transport, go shopping and even visit nightclubs.
He, a boy from Magnitogorsk, who had just graduated from a vocational school as an auto mechanic before the army, was dragged by the doctors to St. Petersburg. Not without the help of his saviors, he rented an apartment in the family hostel of the military medical academy. He entered one of the most prestigious universities in the Northern capital - ITMO.
However, it seems that he doesn't really bother about his future profession at all. Much more Nikolai, like any 23-year-old person, is worried about his own budget and personal life.
- I have money: I received all the due payments for the injury, but what next to do with it? While I put it in the bank at interest. I want to stir up my own business, but I don't know yet what exactly.
And he willingly discusses the topics of his personal life:
- I want a serious relationship, it's time already. But it does not add up yet.
In general, Nikolai has girlfriends. He even agreed to share with me a photograph of one of them and his best friend. Alas, neither yes nor no, this girl has not yet told him.
“I like the pretty ones,” he sighs. - Even very beautiful, like … like this waitress, for example. No, I understand, the mindset is also important, but this is a profitable business, right?
I laugh: it seems that, in his view, “mindset” is such a repository of intelligence, which life gradually loads with various files.
And he does not like to talk about his health. He does not even admit what his disability group is. She cheers: "I will soon write off her anyway!"
“ I want a serious relationship, it's time already. But it's not working out yet, ” Nikolai admits. Photo: From the author's archive
Olga Strauss