Alexei Mutin needs new hand prostheses. After receiving a powerful electric shock at age 12, Alexei was like a firebrand, his hands were burnt pitch-black. Doctors amputated his right hand, and struggled for his life and left hand. Alexei’s life was saved, at the cost of his left hand, though.
Photo: Nikita Infantyev
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Self-Dependent Person
// Alexei Mutin needs new hands
Alexei Mutin is 17 years old. Tall and hearty, he regards himself as adult and quite independent, so it is very hard for him to be asking others for help. However, Alexei cannot do without help in most everyday-life situations, because he has no hands: his right arm ends at the elbow, and his left arm ends a little below the elbow. Russia-made prostheses help rather psychologically than in fact. They are clumsy and unreliable. Alexei visited France, where he saw other type of artificial limbs – such that will rid him of the need to ask for help. Because he will no longer need help. Yet, the French prostheses are expensive. Alexei’s family needs ˆ35,000 more to buy them. Olga helped her son to put on his coat, and we set off for a walk around Kelozi, a village where the Mutin family lives, not far from Saint Petersburg.
Alexei well remembers the day when he and other boys went to an abandoned poultry farm. In fact, the village itself seems to be abandoned: crashed windows in a local cultural center, a school which needs more pupils.
Alexei was 12 years old back then. What else could boys do on a summer day in a village where everything is abandoned? They entered a cabin substation. There was neither a fence, nor a lock, nor a caution board. A powerful electric shock threw Alexei into a pit, and that must be why he stayed alive. Frightened boys ran away and didn’t tell anyone about it. When Alexei recovered consciousness, he climbed out of the pit and walked back to the village. He was like a firebrand, his hands were burnt pitch-black. Yet, he came back. On his own.
The following day, doctors of St. Petersburg’s city hospital #1 amputated his right hand. The experienced doctors, including burns unit head Marina Brazol famous in St. Petersburg, struggled for his life and left hand. Alexei’s life was saved, at the cost of his left hand, though.
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The boy spent the rest of summer vacation in the hospital, and was transferred to the Albrecht Prosthetics Institute in September. Olga recalls:
“At first, when he returned, he said he would never ever go outdoors. Later, however, I saw him running around with other boys. This summer, he swam in the lake, although he was wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt.”
Alexei shows to me how his artificial hands work. Frankly speaking, not very well. If someone puts a spoon into his ‘hand’ – he’ll be able to eat somehow. If someone puts in a pen, he’ll be able to write. He can take a tomato, but he’ll most probably squash it. A cell phone is firmer than a tomato, and the prosthesis won’t break it. Alexei uses another ‘hand’ to dial the number, but the phone often slips out, and that’s why it hangs on a strap. Alexei has already learned to do quite a lot without prostheses. For instance, he mastered the computer and learned to type with his stumps.
“Prostheses get broken very often,” he tells me.
At the time when the prostheses were installed, Alexei began growing rapidly. So, his artificial limbs had to be replaced every six months or even more frequently if they got broken.
Alexei points a school building:
“I went to another school, in a nearby village, because it is a little bit better there.”
“Did you go there by bus?”
“Certainly, and now I go to St. Petersburg every day. I study in Petrovsky College, and I’ll become a lawyer.”
“But how do you?..”
“How do I pay for the bus? Well, I take out the bus card either myself or other people help me. Guys in the college are nice, too. They help even without my asking them.”
Alexei studies to become a lawyer for social issues. Someday, he might work in a social protection department. However, he’s got other plans as well:
“After graduating from college, I can apply to university to major in law. I really want to receive good education.”
Olga says that Alexei decided upon his education on his own. He makes all decisions independently. Meanwhile, the young man is telling me why he decided to enroll in sports:
“Once I was riding on a bus when a guy tore my cell phone off my neck strap. I ran after him but didn’t catch him, cuz I went out of breath. I got so offended that decided to go in for sports.”
“What sport activity did you choose?”
“Our college has a kung-fu club.”
I look at Alexei and suddenly realize that he’ll now be able to counteract anyone whoever tries to tear away his cell phone. Certainly, there still are everyday difficulties with getting dressed, eating, and many other things of which most of us, with hands, are unaware. Yet, Alexei’s eyes express a determination so strong that I think no thief will ever dare attack him.
Anyway, Alexei discovered the world is rich in good people, and there are more good people than all others. St. Petersburg’s Spasenie charity fund has been helping the Mutin family since long ago. With the fund’s help, Alexei and Olga visited Les Charmilles clinic named after Robert Merle in France. Chief doctor Gérard Chiesa examined the guy, and showed prostheses that the clinic can make for Alexei.
“They are fantastic,” sighs Alexei, “that’s another pair of shoes.”
The prostheses are called myoelectric, the word derives from ‘myo’ – Greek for ‘muscle’. Impulses produced by muscles activate miniature electric engines which control the prostheses’ movements. With ‘hands’ like that, Alexei will not squash tomatoes, not even strawberries, because the hand’s squeezing effort is controlled by the muscle as well. Moreover, the cell phone will not slip out, because sensors react to sliding. Certainly, Alexei will have to learn to control the prostheses.
“For instance, I want to raise my hand or to take a pen. Just as I have this thought, the muscle reacts by sending an impulse, and the ‘hand’ does everything right. It’s easy to put the prostheses on; they don’t have these terrible belts. With a hand like that you are a normal person, you see.”
This confident-looking guy suddenly looks at me with desperate eyes and repeats:
“You see, they are fantastic!”
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984,630 rubles more needed to save Alexei Mutin
Alexei’s misfortune happened on June 17, 2003. He received a powerful electric shock. Burnt, he was taken to St. Petersburg’s city hospital #1, where his right hand was amputated at the elbow on his second day there. There was already nothing to preserve, as burns unit head Marina Brazol said. Doctors wanted to save his left hand, “but there started gangrene, and the hand had to be amputated below the elbow”. Doctors say that “Alexei has a positive outlook”. First six months were the hardest for him. A psychologist worked with the boy. Now he has many friends.
A clinic in Paris undertakes to make a myo-prosthesis for his left arm. Alexei’s right arm has completely lost sensitivity, so the doctors decided to use an assembly prosthesis which will bend at the elbow, but the ‘fingers’ of the right ‘hand’ will not move. The French doctors prepared a bill of ˆ40,000 for the Mutin family. The sum covers the cost of both prostheses and a three-month training for Alexei. St. Petersburg’s Spasenie charity fund and La Brise Solaire fund of France will donate ˆ5,000. The organizations will also pay for visas, Alexei’s and his mother Olga’s stay in Paris, transport, meals, and services of interpreter.
As always, our permanent partner Ingosstrakh company will donate $11,500 [please see www.rusfond.ru for details]. So, Alexei needs 984,630 rubles more. Aid money can be transferred to the Sberbank account of Alexei’s mother Olga Mutina. Companies can transfer donations to the account of the Pomosh Charity Fund (established by Kommersant Publishing House and Lev Ambinder). From that account, your donations will be immediately transferred to Olga Mutina. The fund has all banking details.
Expert group of the Russian Aid Fund
Viktor Kostyukovsky, specially for the Russian Aid Fund
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 18, 2008
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