The blind Ukrainian amputee whose wife's voice kept him alive - BBC News

Serhiy suffered catastrophic injuries - including losing both his legs - when an anti-tank mine blew up his vehicle.

3 days agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingRelated TopicsWar in UkraineBy Keiligh BakerBBC NewsAs Serhiy slowly began to regain consciousness in his hospital bed in Kyiv, he realised he couldn't see, speak, or feel his legs - but he could hear his wife Valeria's voice. Comforted, he lost consciousness again.

It was a pattern that lasted weeks. The severely injured Ukrainian soldier would wake up to darkness and panic, unable to communicate because of the tube down his throat - but every time he heard Valeria, he settled down.

"That's what kept me fighting," he tells the BBC's Ukrainecast podcast.

"Until then, I only had nightmares. Terrible dreams in which I was being demolished, destroyed, chewed over - and then the light in regaining consciousness was her voice… Because I wanted to come back to her. To fight through this, to be with her."

Serhiy, 27, suffered catastrophic injuries when his vehicle hit a Russian anti-tank mine on Ukraine's frontline near Mariinka, nine months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of his country.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68376700

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