‘Go to Gori; it’s already a year they’ve been promising the boys to bring prostheses but are doing nothing. I wouldn’t wish even my enemy to be in a similar situation’ – this comment was spread through internet…
Ten dead and several dozens of wounded (exact number of the wounded isn’t specified by the Defense Ministry) – this is the current statistics reflecting the results of Georgian peace mission in Afghanistan. Should the State take full responsibility for the dead and wounded soldiers? There is only one answer to the question.
A week ago I managed to enter Gori hospital. In the ward I met Captain Aluda Seturidze, chief of light infantry squadron of 32nd battalion. While being on patrol he was stepped on a handmade mine. Besides his legs the mine also tore off his seven fingers.
He was operated on 27 times in a German military clinics where he was visited by a Hollywood star Angelina Jolie. ‘I have never regretted going to Afghanistan. There every soldier is a hero. Peace mission in Afghanistan is a great practice for our armed forces’, says Aluda. It’s the sixth month since he was brought to Gori hospital. They promise to take him to America for prosthetics. They assure he will be equipped with a modern-technology prosthesis with the help of which the legless guys manage to live a full-blooded life.
Everybody in the hospital knows the ‘Afghan’ boys, especially Corporal Sabashvili, who has been taking treatment in the military-medical institution for more than a year. Moris blew up on a mine too and he lost both legs and right arm. In one of the wards of the same floor there is Corporal Aleko Gitolendia, he too lost both of his legs. Again it was due to the explosion of a hand-made mine. It was the very explosion that took life of Mukhran Shukvani, chief of squadron of 31st battalion. More than one year has passed since then and the 26-year-old Corporal is still waiting for his turn to go for rehabilitation to America.
Sabashvili was visited by Michelle Obama, the First Lady of the USA. She gave him sweets and reassured that everything would be OK.
Zaal Gabashvili, surgeon at Gori military hospital: ‘Three men have already been taken for treatment to America. Aluda is ready for prosthetics; we are waiting for him to be taken.
Q. – Why has his journey taken so long?
A. – I can’t say. You have to address the Defense Ministry.
Salome Makharadze, head of the public affairs department of Defense Ministry: ‘It depends upon psychological and physical condition of the patients. Post-traumatic rehabilitation service is fully covered by the state and it will be implemented when the doctors decide.
Besides the attending physician, the doctor who will continue working with them must also be in the know.
