"My Touch Is My Eyes": How a Blind Combat Medic Saves His Comrades' Lives

Oleg Hurol began his service in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine back in 2020 in the Luhansk region but the full-scale Russian invasion caught him in the Chernihiv region where he was trained as a combat medic. During his service he held the defense in Donetsk and Luhansk directions and also participated in the liberation of the Kharkiv region. I have on my mom's line in my family all servicemen very much from my great-grandfather on my dad's line too so I decided to restore this line and I had such a desire to serve my country. On November 30, 2022 in the Kharkiv region while carrying out a combat mission Oleg stepped on a Russian mine and sustained numerous injuries as a result of which he completely lost his sight. Shrapnel hit my head, neck, arm, chest, near my heart and leg. I felt like there was something on my head. I wanted to reach out but it wasn't allowed and they started holding my hand. Later I regained consciousness in a hospital in Kyiv and it turned out that I have been in a coma for 28 days. In two years Oleg underwent dozens of surgeries and went through long rehabilitation. Then he decided that he wanted to continue helping his comrades and completed courses at the Lviv Medical Academy. Now he works as a massage therapist and rehabilitation specialist. What I like most about the process is feeling what you've already done how it changes to the touch because as they say blind massage therapists see with their fingers. Artem is one of Oleg's patients. He has an amputated upper limb and needs regular massage sessions. They met at the firing range where both servicemen were trained. In the trooper's oath there are these words I'm a professional. This applies to everything a trooper will do no matter what he does. He is a professional. The massage is a professional. I thank him very much. He made me healthy, gets me back on track, puts me back on my feet. Colleagues at work appreciate Oleg. They say that I'm very proud of Oleg that there are guys like him. Our true heroes, young and brave. He is a fighter both on the front lines and here. He helps here too. He helps the guys a lot. He understands and feels them. I'm very proud of such people. Oleg himself is constantly striving for self-improvement. He plans to take more massage courses to provide even better and more professional assistance to Ukrainian servicemen. Reported by Yulia Bil, Vadim Dmitriev, UATV News. American Humvee is very big and comfortable inside the medics said that is one of the best car for their job here close to frontline. In one time the doctors can give the help for 10 or 15 people. So there are times when it's loaded with 10 to 15 people? Yes, people with small fragments are brought here. It could be a lot of them come in. This vehicle can be fully loaded. And how do you work when it's 10 to 15 people? Well, since they have light wounds, you just put one there and one here and do something. Very fast, right? Yes. Thanks to its wide body the Humvee can hold four critically injured and up to two dozen lightly wounded servicemen. The vehicle can easily handle such a load, medics say. It goes like a tank. Snow or mud doesn't matter. And at what speed do you recall going? I can go 100 or even 120. The almost five-ton vehicle can easily pass and maneuver off-road at any time of the year, says Humvee driver Vitaly. He adds that all other nuances depend on the driver. I am memorizing where the holes are. And if it's night and if you're without light? From memory, we only drive at night actually. Rotation can last for months, as medics say, that they are used to saving lives of Ukrainian defenders in any conditions. 12-hour night shifts, snacks on the go and the constant risk of getting under fire. At the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, Volodymyr switched his private dentist office to service in the armed forces of Ukraine. For such work, he says, he was fully prepared. Were there any wounded this night? Yes, they were being taken out. It's not very safe to take them out during the day. So if there are some light or medium wounds that could wait, they stay in the positions and then taken out in the dark. Right now they will take out those that are critical. Medics say that there is always enough work in the Bakhmut direction. Only recently, there have been fewer wounded. It's on and off. Sometimes it's more, sometimes less, but now it got smaller. Oleg, a paramedic, was born in Russia. He has many relatives there, but he and his family have no relations with any of them at the moment. It was surprising for me that they came to liberate me here, saying that I am allegedly humiliated here and allowed to speak Russian. I speak Ukrainian since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion. Before that, I spoke in Russian. They have no right to tell us how to live or how to speak. Servicemen say that there is a shortage of medics at the front and those who serve are bearing a double burden. At the same time, the doctors do not complain of fatigue. And what is the hardest to see in the war? The boys that you're taking out, it's the hardest. They are almost like children for me.