Ruslan Kokyza’s journey to surgery was different from most.  Born in Ukraine in 1987, just before the former Soviet Union dissolved, Ruslan had cerebral palsy and equinocavovarus, or clubfoot.  Instead of receiving treatment, he was put into a mental institution, where the disabled often wound up, their diagnosis translating roughly to: the inability to be human. With no medicine or therapy for his CP, his muscles grew tighter, his body less able.  For the next 20 years, nothing really changed for Ruslan. 

“So many doctors would look at his foot and say there’s no point,” says Jed Johnson, of Wide Awake, International, a group working for change for men and boys with disabilities in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine. “People with CP have to take medicine for their spasticity, but doctors wouldn’t give it to him.  Humanitarian appeals didn’t really work, and there were many closed doors.” 

Everything changed when Jed brought Ruslan to the family-based home he and his wife founded for men and boys with disabilities, just like Ruslan. 

But Ruslan’s foot would have to take a backseat to many things over the months after he was removed from the asylum.  “We brought Ruslan home in 2019 when he was 28 years old,” says Jed.  “He had lived in an institution for much of his life.”  Abused, neglected, and starved, Ruslan was so badly malnourished they spent the first three months working slowly to feed him back to health.  During that time, they also began helping him socialize and learn how to interact with people.  “He needed to learn how to value himself and others, and that he no longer has to be afraid in his daily life.” 

“Then we had to find his real diagnosis,” Jed says.  “What was in his record was mostly made up, so we had to start from scratch.”  For Ruslan, it turned out they needed to ask the wider community for help, and that connected them to Dr. Steven Plumb, an anesthesiologist with connections to both Wide Awake, International and to orthopedic surgeon Dr. Nicholas Abidi of Golden State Orthopedics & Spine. 

“Dr. Abidi has been wonderful,” Jed says.  “He has been so kind and he does such good work.” 

But again, even getting to see Dr. Abidi was an ordeal.  With the war in Ukraine, just trying to get travel visas required additional travel to Bucharest!  “We also had to prepare him for the flight.  Ruslan had no idea what to expect, so a speech therapist made a social story book about his life and his trip to help allay anxiety.  We had to explain each step, and how to cope.  Sometimes that meant reminding him to breathe!  His younger brother went through a surgery of his own, and many pictures had been taken, so Ruslan has seen those as well.  Seeing his brother’s healing progression fired his imagination for his own future.” 

The surgery is now complete, the first cast is off and Jed reports, “Everything looks good.  It’s still a bit swollen so we are tightening his bandage a few times a day.  He improves every day.  This week, if everything looks good, they will put on another cast for 4-5 weeks.”  Ruslan is already off the oxycodone and is taking only Tylenol, the spasticity meds for his CP and vitamins. 

“I am thankful for the opportunity to help Ruslan achieve his dream to walk and run,” says Dr. Abidi.”

It will be a while before Ruslan is able to bear weight on his foot, but he is enthusiastic about what recovery will mean for him.  “Ruslan likes to sing his own songs, so he’s been singing a song about walking and running as soon as his foot is better,” says Jed.