Vladyslav Yeschenko - a military sapper completely lost his eyes during a combat mission.

New technologies of the so-called "digital" or "artificial" vision can help such people - this is when only the brain is used for the image, not the eyes.

So far, such methods exist in the form of experimental treatment.

However, the fighter and the volunteers dream not just to get digital vision, but to bring this technology to Ukraine so that all those who lost their eyes due to the war can see again, TSN reports. 

Vlad comes from Horlivka, in 2014, when he was still a schoolboy, he and his father moved to Slovyansk.

When Russia came to take his home a second time, Vlad rallied and volunteered.

In civilian life, Vlad was engaged in humanitarian demining.

That's why he joined the engineering and sapper platoon in the Armed Forces.

Vlad was wounded on August 22 near Bakhmut during a combat mission - ammunition detonated.

"Immediately darkness, deafness.

The cold was very strong, I remember how they cut off my armor, poured water on me and I blacked out," the man recalls.   

He fell into a coma for 10 days, his condition was critical.

Vlad had burnt body and face, partially lost hearing, 30 shrapnel all over his body.

His father, Mr. Oleksandr, says that doctors and departments were changing, he had already lost count of operations - dozens of specialists fought for his son's life.

"From the day he was transferred to the maxillofacial department, roughly speaking, I lived with him for 4 months in the hospital," the man says. 

The fighter was retaught to speak, eat and walk and barely admitted to him that his eyes had to be removed.

"On August 9, Vlad, who was before, died, we have to learn to live again.

If you compare the eyes with an egg, if you shake it very hard and the whole consistency turns into a homogeneous mass, the same thing happens with the eye.

It is impossible to save them, they were removed to prevent gangrene," the doctors explain. 

Vlad has prostheses in his eyeballs, they are only responsible for aesthetics.

Friends and acquaintances of the fighter, even during his treatment in the hospital, began to look for technologies that would help restore Vlad the ability to see.

Tetyana Dovzhyn, a Ukrainian ophthalmologist in Prague, responded to the search.

Tatyana sent inquiries to all the laboratories of the world engaged in research related to vision.

Professor Eduardo Fernandez, who works in Spain, wrote back that he is working on the so-called "digital vision".

"The camera stands on the glasses and transmits the image to the sensor, it has a program that uses artificial intelligence.

It reformats the information and then this information goes to the next chip, which is located in the visual cortex of the brain.

This is an image of a hundred points of light, for example, if we take a glass, they will not see this glass, 

Mrs. Tatiana was in Professor Fernandez's laboratory.

This technology showed itself well on rats - they were implanted with a chip in the brain.

And now the team has received a Spanish license to continue research with humans.

However, the chip can only be used for 6 months.

Two completely blind patients tested the technology on themselves, says Professor Fernandes.

"Partial perception of the world appeared in both patients.

It's not full vision, but they can see lines, even some letters.

Our laboratory has a city simulator, and they train there, walk and even run without crashing into objects," says the professor.  

The second stage of this research should be a chip of a new modification, it can be used on a permanent basis, and the improved program will not have a hundred points, but much more, so that the picture in the brain is more complex.  

It is this second stage of research that Vlad is waiting for.

He deliberately refused to go to Spain and get digital vision for six months.

Instead, together with a friend and a volunteer, he organized the charity fund "See the Victory" and all the money that Ukrainians donated for the trip and his rehabilitation in Spain, including five million hryvnias, became the first contribution to the fund.

The guys want to collect more funds in order to later buy the finished technology and make it available to Ukrainians who have been left without eyes.

"We need to do something so that Ukrainians have this technology. While we were collecting money, 13 people approached us," the boys say. 

It can take up to 3 years to develop a new chip.

Vlad wants, through his story, to give maximum publicity to these studies, perhaps there will be investors who want to accelerate the development of the technology.

There are 36 million blind people in the world, and in Ukraine, such military and civilian people are increasing every day due to hostilities.

If the technology of digital vision can be developed and subsequently bought the right to use it in Ukraine - for Vlad - it will be a personal victory.

And he dreams of seeing Ukraine's victory over Russia with new vision.

You can help the fund using the details - "See the victory" Account number 5375 4112 0143 8111

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