Публікація в Women For Ukraine

Natalya Lyutikova (Doctors for Heroes)

Natalya Lyutikova lived in Crimea until 2014. For 20 years she has been a top manager at the regional level in the banking sector. After the occupation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, she realized that she could no longer live and work in her native land and moved to the Kyiv region with her three children.

There she took up volunteering and got a job at the Kiev Main Military Hospital where she began to help the wounded. “I worked as a nurse, brought food, bought medicines, provided ted psychological support, in particular  helping amputees prepare for prosthetics,” says Natalia. She also organized loans abroad for the wounded, who could not be helped in Ukraine.

In 2016, together with her volunteer friends, Natalia founded her own brand of women’s clothing. “It was important for us to create beautiful modern things with a Ukrainian spirit for women, to turn our love for the country into embroidery and perfect cut lines. We need to constantly nourish the new Ukrainian awareness that has awakened after the Revolution of Dignity, we send our message transmit through clothes.” After the start of the war, in addition to designing women’s clothing, Natalia and her colleagues, began to sew clothes for the wounded. They also donate money to support the Ukrainian army.

Natalia helps people in the occupied territories and in 2020 she adopted a teenage girl from Crimea. “Subsequently, after the start of the War and the occupation of the left bank of the Kherson region, I became a trustee for two more children – teenage boys, who had to be saved from being taken to Russia. Now I have 6 children, whom I am raising as Ukrainians,” says Natalia.

After the outbreak of the war in 2022, Natalia began managing the Doctors for Heroes project. This project was created so that every person, who received a facial injury as a result of a Russian weapon hit, could receive free medical care – surgical reconstruction of the facial bones in the skull. “Each such operation is unique, because for a patient whose bones are damaged, Ukrainian bioengineers model individual titanium implants that replace parts of the skull. They print them on a 3D printer in Ukraine,”- says Natalia., “In this way, you can cut orbital plates, cheekbones, and even insert a jaw that was taken out by a shell fragment. After such operations, the wounded can eat again or keep their eyesight.”

The Doctors for Heroes Project brings together the best maxillofacial surgeons and bioengineers. Natalia works with the team of the Eastern Star Charitable Foundation, which attracts ongoing financial assistance. “There are a lot of wounded, their number is increasing every day. And our task is to help each hero find a new life,” says Natalia.