Dr. Kozyavkin - a miracle worker who believes in the future of Ukraine
There is a hospital in the town of Truskavets that
works miracles -
children suffering from cerebral palsy (PS),
other serious diseases and spinal injuries begin to take care of
themselves, walk and talk within two or three weeks after being
admitted. It is a stunning result, and those who see the sick children
before the treatment and after it exclaim in disbelief, “It’s nothing
short of miracle!” The principle miracle worker is Doctor Volodymyr
Kozyavkin who performs miracles with his hands -
in a very literal
sense.
New therapy
In the early 1980s Dr Kozyavkin began to use manual
therapy for improving the muscular tonus of the PS children, but since
the children’s spine is, in many respects, very much different from the
grown-ups’ spine, the classical manual therapy techniques were hardly
applicable. The doctor realized that new techniques were to be
developed, and it took him almost ten years to do so. In 1989 he made a
report at the International Manual Therapy Congress in London about his
findings, and in 1990 he set up a rehabilitation centre. The new
techniques gradually evolved into an entirely new therapy which was
given the name of The System of Intensive Neurophysiological
Rehabilitation (SINR). In the past ten years five thousand children
form all regions of Ukraine and from many countries of Europe and
America have been rehabilitated at the Kozyavkin International Clinic.
Originally, the new therapeutic centre was set up in
Lviv but soon enough it became apparent that a new, larger centre was
needed to accommodate all those who wanted to get treatment. Volodymyr
Kozyavkin’s system of treating patients suffering from pathologies of
the spine, consequences of injuries, infections, and strokes was so
much better in comparison with the similar therapies provided at other
Ukrainian, Russian, European or American clinics that the waiting lists
of patients who wanted to go through Kozyavkin’s rehabilitation course
kept growing. And it was decided to have a large centre built. Very
wisely, the location of the new clinic was moved to the town of
Truskavets, a spa at the foot of the Carpathians. The place was famous
for its beautiful scenery and excellent quality of its mineral water
obtained from many sources. Besides, Truskavets is strategically
situated close to the border and to Lviv that is within easy reach for
foreign and domestic patients. In 1996 an Institute of Medical
Rehabilitation was opened in Truskavets and in 2003 the construction of
the International Rehabilitation Clinic was completed. The opening of
the clinic was hailed by the media as one of the major events in
Western Ukraine in the year 2003.
The six-story clinic, apart from being a
state-of-the-art medical centre, offers services comparable to those
provided by a four-star hotel. In fact, it was Dr Kozyavkin’s intention
to provide comfort of a four-star hotel at his clinic in order to
minimize the psychological impact a medical institution with its
atmosphere of woe, disease and smell of medicines has on patients. Dr
Kozyavkin’s semicircular office is at the top floor of a tower, from
whose windows open wide vistas of the sky and of the mountains, of the
mountains and of the sky. Dr Kozyavkin is an enthusiast of mountain
hikes and whenever he has time, he spends it in the mountains, “closer
to the sun.” The site for the clinic was chosen specifically to provide
gorgeous views that would open from the clinic’s windows -
what
you see from every window is like a picture from a
welcome-to-our-resort tourist brochure. Dr Kozyavkin believes that the
scenery is as important in its positive effect on the patients as the
salubrious air. The interior decor of the clinic has also been designed
to produce a soothing impression upon the patients -
the
flamboyant neo-art nouveau style of the interior design with its
stylized flower motifs evokes an upsurge of positive emotions the
moment you enter the lobby of the clinic. The whole place is permeated
with feelings of regeneration, renaissance and recovery.
Excellent results
The key feature in Dr Kozyavkin’s therapy lies in
“turning on” the sections of the brain which are adjacent to the
damaged section, in other words, it aims at finding compensatory
mechanisms thanks to which the patient’s organism can, at least partly,
restore the functions that have been lost. Positive results are
achieved in ninety percent of the cases.
Says Dr Kozyavkin:
“There is one fundamental difference between what we
offer and what is offered in clinics similar to ours abroad — we
have found the key to the door that leads to the reserves and
compensatory mechanisms of the human organism in general, and of the
brain in particular. Mobilizing these reserves, the patient can adapt
to the complexities of life. Into the foundation of our therapy we have
put physical therapy, in other words therapy which does not involve
either taking medicines or undergoing operations. We have developed
original techniques of corrective measures applied to the spine and the
joints, which together with other procedures are used to start
mechanisms dormant in the bodies of the sick children. We use
reflexotherapy, kinetotherapy, complex and manual therapies but not in
their classical versions but in our own new ways. All our therapies are
based on the results of comprehensive scientific research. The group of
researchers and doctors I headed who were involved in developing the
new therapy have been awarded a state prize in Ukraine in the field of
science and technology (and Dr Kozyavkin himself was awarded the Order
of the Hero of Ukraine -
N.K.) Our therapy is among the four
world’s leading rehabilitation therapies.
Over 4,000 patients from different countries of the
world but mostly from the USA, Austria, Switzerland, the USA and
Russia, have been treated at our clinic. These countries have their own
clinics and rehabilitation therapies but people want to come to our
clinic. Why? Because the treatment we provide brings excellent results.
There are so many things in Ukraine that are at the
forefront of science, technology and medicine, but this tremendous
potential is realized but little, and our clinic is a good example of
what can be achieved through concentrated effort, commitment and
determination. We are successful because we employ a comprehensive
approach. We combine functionality and structural efficiency, and we
achieve results whose quality is of the highest world standards.
Incidentally, everything in our clinic is made in
Ukraine -
materials, design, equipment. And all our doctors and
medical personnel are Ukrainians, and of course all the methods of
treatment are Ukrainian. We believe that we can achieve all the goals
we set ourselves. We rely only on ourselves, we do not wait for the
state to support us, or for foreign investors to come and provide us
with the necessary capital. We do not believe in getting things done
for free -
as they say free cheese can be found only in
mousetraps. We look ahead and we know what we shall need and how to get
what we need. We are not alone in using this kind of approach, there
are others like us, and not only in medicine, but in other fields as
well. Things have started to get moving in Ukraine.”
No competitors
There are no clinics like Dr Kozyavkin’s in Europe, he
has no competitors in his field. Patients come from all the regions of
Russia, from the north, south, west and east, and about the same number
come from Western Europe and America. Children are accompanied by
parents or relatives and they are provided with accommodation. The
rehabilitation treatment costs from two to three thousand Euros on
average. But it is not the costs which are lower than at similar
institutions elsewhere that attract patients -
it is the
excellence of treatment and results that are major attractions. When
their child is sick, the parents think in terms of the results of
therapy rather than in terms of money. It takes but two weeks at Dr
Kozyavkin’s clinic to get the children, who at the beginning of the
course of treatment cannot walk or who react but little to the world
around them, walking and talking. Children who are bent, miserable and
immobile, straighten up, begin to move their limbs, learn anew to take
care of themselves -
watching this miraculous transformation makes
an indelible impression upon anyone who witnesses it. On one of the
children’s pictures which hang in great numbers on the walls of the
clinic, I read these words: “Here we have one misfortune -
and one
joy.” The joy of becoming healthier, of being able to walk, to use the
hands, to rejoice. The joy of seeing children come back to life, of
hopes coming true. And for the parents who see all these miracles
happen, the doctor who makes it all happen is hardly anything short of
a saint.
The course of treatment at the clinic completed, all
the patients are provided with individual programmes of further
curative exercises they should follow at home in order to secure the
results achieved at the clinic. It is a step-by-step course that is
designed to bring the patients back to normal life. The clinic keeps in
touch with its ex-patients, provides advice and consultations, suggests
further steps in the rehabilitation process. The clinic sends to its
former patients not only medical advice but good wishes as well -
in December 2004 more than 3,500 Christmas cards were sent to addresses
abroad with seasonal greetings. Each card to a former patient who has
been set on the road to recovery.
All the rooms -
which double as hospital
wards -
in the clinic are computerized, and the computers help
track the progress and make treatment of every patient individually
targeted. A new Internet service is being set up and the ex-patients
and potential patients will be able to receive consultations through
the Internet, and get whatever information they seek about the clinic
and costs of treatment. The parents of children who suffer from
diseases that the clinic provides treatment for will be able to get
advice as to the use of computers at home in order to develop the
children’s intellect and teach them skills useful in life. Such a
complex approach which includes treatment at the clinic and
post-treatment monitoring and advice is unique not only in Ukraine but
in the world.
Says Dr Kozyavkin: “I’ve been able to turn my idea into
reality only thanks to the fact that Ukraine went independent. It was
independence that opened the way for projects like mine. Yes, there are
a lot of problems that this country faces, but we have enough
intellectual, scientific and human potential to carry out the most
ambitious projects which will bring Ukraine up to a decent standard of
living and earn this country a high prestige in the world. It’s not
enough to say ‘I love my country,’ -
you have to work hard for
your country to prove that you really love her. Determination,
commitment, perseverance, culture, traditions -
all these things
combined will bring the desired results. Achievable ideas, interesting
ideas, original ideas, living ideas are what we need to move forward.
Here, at out clinic, we are a team united by common ideas and joint
work, and this principle applied elsewhere will work as successfully.
I’m convinced that most problems we face today in
Ukraine are the result of the problems that exist within us. We are the
product of a very complicated past. It’s very difficult for the older
generations who lived for so many years under the Soviet regime to get
rid of the old stereotypes. That is why I made it a point to employ
younger people, mostly those who were not affected by the Soviet
ideology. Many of the clinic’s personnel had worked in Argentina,
Spain, Portugal and other foreign countries, and when they came back
home they discovered that they could earn good money here, in Ukraine!
We are proud to say that our clinic creates new lucrative jobs, that
people of Truskavets and of the whole area have a chance of finding
very good jobs without having to go abroad in search of employment. I
can tell you this -
I’ve been to many countries of the world, I’ve
visited such major cities as New York, Paris, Madrid, Johannesburg,
Tel-Aviv, you name it, and I’ve discovered that there’s no better
country than Ukraine. It is only in Ukraine that I could make my dream
of having a clinic like ours come true.”