In August 2022, the Superhumans Center project was presented in the Lviv region – a new initiative of TIS port co-owner Andrii Stavnitser to create a modern specialized clinic for prosthetics, reconstruction and PTSD treatment for war victims.
During the six months of the war, thousands of Ukrainians, including children, received significant injuries to their limbs and bodies. In addition to the pain of terrible physical injuries, victims of shrapnel wounds and shelling suffer from PTSD.
The Superhumans clinic is being created in order to provide these people with a decent quality of life and due respect in society, the initiators say.
“Today, such patients are taken abroad, and there are more and more of them. So if we do not create a center of excellence in Ukraine, these people will remain crippled forever,” explains Andriy Stavnitser. “The possibilities of a person who passed through the fire, survived, got up, gathered his strength and continued to live are unlimited, they are limitless. And our goal is to give war victims exactly this quality of life and exactly this respect from the environment.“
The Superhumans clinic, which will treat war victims and civilians free of charge, will be created on the basis of an active military hospital in the Lviv region. Stavnitzer’s team, which has been helping the Ukrainian army and the civilian population since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, leases one of the buildings, reconstructs and equips it.
Olga Rudneva, former longtime director of Olena Pinchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation, became the CEO of the clinic. Another founder of the project is Filipp Hrushko, a member of the TIS supervisory board and coordinator of important investment deals on the Ukrainian market.
The medical board includes Viktor Lyashko, Minister of Health of Ukraine, American craniofacial surgeon Peter Kostyantyno, Oleksiy Bashkirtsev, candidate of medical sciences, cardiologist, chief physician of Edem Clinic.
The initiators of the project emphasize that budget financing of the clinic is not foreseen, since the project will be financed by donors. The activities of Superhumans will be audited by one of the so-called “Big Four” companies.
Superhumans will contain 100 beds, an operating theatre, a prosthetics laboratory and a large physiotherapy department. The clinic will focus on prosthetics for adults and children, surgical operations for reconstruction and restoration of mutilated parts of the body or face, treatment of post-traumatic disorders. Ukrainians will be treated by the best specialists from the USA and the EU – more than 100 doctors from all over the world. The first patients are planned to be accepted already in the spring of 2023.
In his social networks, the founder of the project, Andriy Stavnitser, calls on people with unique medical experience from all over the world to join the project. The First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska joined the Board of Superhumans.
“Every day we all see the terrible consequences of Russian aggression. Russia destroys not only cities and houses, it cripples our people – children and adults. They lose arms and legs, suffer burns and injuries, and develop post-traumatic stress disorder. But we value every life. We will fight for every person and for them to recover from any injury, to have all the opportunities for a full and happy life,” Zelenska said.
In addition, the wife of the president will continue to take care of the creation of a barrier-free environment accessible to everyone. “Our compatriots who have been injured or amputated are superheroes, they survived terrible ordeals and came out of them even stronger. They need to see respect from others and feel confident and free,” said the first lady.
Superhumans’ noble cause has already been supported by an all-star team of ambassadors and friends who spread the word and help with fundraising. CEO and founder of Richard Branson’s family foundation Virgin United Jean Oelwang, film director, actress and activist Trudy Styler with her husband, world star Sting, Hollywood actor Liev Schreiber, Mick Ebeling, famous American inventor and innovator, founder founder of Not Impossible Labs.
“Superhumans‘ mission is to accomplish several things. The first is to destigmatize the victims of war, and to create a place, a world-class environment for the treatment of people broken or damaged by war. And I think that some of the best surgeons in the world work in Ukraine. All that is needed is to provide resources, support and spread information,” says one of the ambassadors of the project, Hollywood movie star Liev Schreiber.
Medical clinic Superhumans has received a donation of $16.3 million from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the fund of the eldest son of billionaire Warren Buffett.
“At every second meeting there was the question “aren’t you afraid to build in Ukraine during the war?” Howard fully understands this: he shares our conviction that new high-quality medical services for war victims should be available in Ukraine as soon as possible”, Stavnitzer said.
Of the $16.3 million received, $15.3 million will be directed to the renovation and equipment of the premises of the Lviv hospital. Another million dollars will be spent on the purchase of prostheses for the clinic’s first civilian and military patients.
In general, the full-fledged launch and the first three years of operation of the Superhumans center, according to the project team, will require funding of $54 million.
So now the project team is focused on collecting the necessary $54 million, renovating the hospital building, purchasing equipment and replenishing the team of specialists. Already in September, the ambassadors and initiators of Superhumans will go to the first road show to the USA, where they will start a powerful fundraising campaign. The founders also intend to present the project in Great Britain and EU countries.
Construction of the Superhumans Center clinic as of February 27, 2023
