Prosthetic device manufacturer Össur is providing Ukrainian amputees with prosthetic devices and training experts to offer services to individuals with prosthetic limbs, reports Vísir.
“What is important in this is creating some sort of permanent solution for individuals. It’s not enough to give the products, there needs to be a service, there needs to be experts [on hand] to help these individuals get started and maintain the prosthetic limb,” says Össur CEO Sveinn Sölvason.
Össur has now trained ten Ukrainian experts to help Ukrainians who have lost limbs, and the company has built legs for ten people, but many are still waiting.
“Carefully estimated, these are around a thousand people in Ukraine [who are waiting]—both soldiers and civilians who have lost either a leg or an arm. We want to contribute to alleviating the suffering of these people by providing them with a permanent solution,” says Sveinn.
Sveinn says these services have a huge impact on people physically, but also mentally.
“We were training Ukrainian prosthetists in Norway, and we received a soldier from Ukraine who had lost his leg. His girlfriend came with him, and he was so incredibly happy to get this new prosthetic that he proposed to his girlfriend right there in the hospital in Oslo. So what we do generally has a big impact on people’s lives and that’s a big part of the company and is very important to us,” he says.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Fund granted 30 million ISK to the accompany, according to reports. However, the project costs around 100 million ISK in total.
Össur can build a new custom limb in just two to three hours.
“This technology is unique and allows us to carry out projects like this in Ukraine,” Sveinn says.
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