A Young Worker Rebuilds His Life After a 2.5-Ton Beam Crushed Him
Svetlana is Alexander«s main helper and even enrolled to study alongside her husband.
Our colleagues from E1.RU met Alexander Lyskov two years ago. Back then, he had just pulled through—he survived a horrific injury and amputation. Irina Volkova, head of the rehabilitation center, had seen hundreds of people«s fates, and they all dealt with misfortune differently. Alexander»s story touched the doctor.
The factory helped install a ramp, allowing Alexander to get outside independently.
In her 36 years of work, Irina Gennadyevna had only once before encountered a patient who had lost not just his legs, but even his hip joints. The first was a disabled veteran of the Great Patriotic War, and the second was 26-year-old Alexander Lyskov, a worker at a Nizhny Tagil factory who survived being crushed by a 2.5-ton beam. Before the accident, he was a strong, healthy, athletic young man, 178 cm (5 feet 10 inches) tall. After the amputations, his height became 83 cm (2 feet 9 inches).
Sasha has taken up chess and participates in tournaments.
Two years later, E1.RU journalist Elena Pankratyeva visited Alexander in Nizhny Tagil to see how his life had turned out.
Svetlana and Alexander.
Alexander was brought to rehabilitation in a very serious condition. It was too early to start rehab; he was barely conscious: he had open wounds, couldn«t sit up, his blood pressure kept dropping, and he was fed with a spoon like a child—»for mommy, for daddy.«
Early rehabilitation sessions after numerous surgeries, with Alexander and center head Irina Volkova.
Later, when Sasha (Alexander) could speak, he said he was from an orphanage. He was then transferred to the burn unit of Hospital No. 40, where they performed complex skin graft operations. Everything took, and he began to recover, exercise, and train to return to a normal life as much as possible.
Competing in events for people with disabilities.
«How many people do you know for whom everything is always good?» Irina Volkova shared her thoughts about her new patient at the time. «And I mean genuinely good. I walk into one of the rooms and from the doorway I ask the guy lying by the window: »Sasha, how are you doing today?« The reply: »Everything«s fine, Irina Gennadyevna.» A beautiful smile and some puzzlement: what could be wrong? Look at him and think: are we glad to be alive, or do we moan about trifles, whine about nothing, and do we even have any real problems?«
Their cat is named Brother (Bratukha).
Returned to the Factory
Alexander trains daily and can now do 30 pull-ups, the same as before his injury.
Sasha meets us together with his wife Svetlana. They live with their son in an old two-story house built in the post-war years, very close to the factory. It«s clean, cozy, and spacious: the doorways are wide—the wheelchair passes easily everywhere.
Leg prostheses are attached to a special framework-like structure.
Sasha has just returned from work; he works part-time. He receives a pension and all disability benefits, which in his case equal his full previous salary because the injury was work-related. But, as he admits, he couldn«t just sit at home and not work. Alexander is a trainee in the industrial safety department at the same metal structures factory, conducting safety briefings. He understood how important they are from his own bitter experience, when a combination of various mistakes led to the emergency.
Alexander demonstrates how he now manages household chores and exercises.
«Sometimes very young guys, around 18, come in. I roll out from behind the desk in my wheelchair and say: »You see how important it is for everyone to follow safety rules?« And I explain, I conduct the briefing,» says our protagonist.
Alexander was injured in 2023. He was working as a slinger, securing loads. A 2.5-ton beam slipped off a crane hook and crushed him. The worker remembers every detail: how he lay there, not feeling much pain at first due to shock, how they pulled him out, how he rode in the ambulance with his wife to the hospital, talking about some trifles, like his phone was broken. He didn«t yet know how difficult everything would be. At the hospital, Sasha fell into a coma and spent three weeks in that state.
«The factory helped a lot back then: both the management and the trade union. Our supervisor there is a woman, a wonderful, caring person. She visited the hospital, brought care packages. And then she was there for us, supported us,» recalls Alexander.
At that time, he and his wife had just bought an apartment with a mortgage. To avoid arrears, the factory immediately paid off the bank debt, and then helped them buy a new apartment, more spacious and on the ground floor, where the family now lives. They also installed a modern ramp with a remote control so Alexander can get out of the house on his own. Every morning a company car picks him up, takes him to work, and then brings him home.
They also paid for surgeries—the ones not covered by the state health insurance:
«At first I lived with urine bags. Everything was severed, and that»s a very important moment, an important part of a full life. Even when the beam fell, that was the first thing I thought about. You can adapt without legs, if your head is on straight. But… for a man it«s not just legs that are important, any guy will understand me. Here, in this region, they couldn»t help me with anything. I remember sitting at an appointment, and a doctor, a candidate of sciences, tells me he can«t restore anything. And I don»t understand why. I say: «You have an academic degree, how can you not?» And he says: «I can»t.«»
Apparently, the damage to his genitals after the trauma was serious, and not everyone was willing to take on the complex surgery. A full reconstructive urological operation was performed at a large private medical center in the Moscow region, where some of the best specialists work. This important surgery for a normal life was also paid for by the factory.
«A doctor from Israel operated on me. Apparently, he also collaborates with this center. He restored everything perfectly. I was discharged after just five days. They drove me from home to Moscow in a car specially equipped for bedridden patients; I can»t sit for long. My wife had just returned home—I call her: «They»ve already discharged me,« and she set off to get me again,» says Sasha.
They Went Through Fire and Water Together
Alexander is now 28. His wife Svetlana has been his main helper all these years: she accompanied him to all commissions and surgeries, helped with important everyday things: bathing, carrying him down six floors to the street on her back.
They met six years ago: Alexander saw Svetlana«s social media page, wrote to her, and she replied. They texted at first, then met, and got married a year later. He accepted her son from her first marriage as his own. Sveta worked as a salesperson for many years; Sasha invited her to work at his factory. And three years later, disaster struck.
Svetlana was also home during our meeting.
«We»ve been through fire and water together,« she recalls. »The first weeks were very scary, my hands were shaking. The doctors said: «If you know any prayers, pray.» I went to a psychologist. The psychologist explained everything to me, about the stages of acceptance: denial, anger, he described all the steps. And that«s exactly how I experienced it, the whole spectrum of feelings.
I was terribly worried about him, about how he would live in this world, because our infrastructure and environment aren«t designed for people with disabilities: streets you can»t navigate in a wheelchair, snow in winter, high curbs. At first there was confusion, you don«t know what to do. And when he regained consciousness, I already had a plan of action: rehabilitation, the medical-labor expert commission, establishing disability.
My mom was very worried about Sasha back then, she supported us. There was never any talk like: «How are you going to be with a disabled person now?» She«s as loyal as I am. And my dad, and my brother, all our relatives. We are a family, and there can»t be any other options. Our girlfriends and friends also helped. The people around us are like that; there aren«t any others.»
Sasha continues the conversation:
— The most important thing is when you are loved and supported. So many friends reached out when they found out what happened to me. They wrote, asked how they could help.
— And your mom? (Sasha ended up in an orphanage at ten when his mother was deprived of parental rights. — Ed.)
— Mom needs help herself. Even if at the beginning of my life she didn«t do much for me, a mother is a mother. I support her morally and try to help financially. She»s raising my younger brother alone. He«s only eight, and it»s hard for her.
«I»ll Learn Everything«
Over these two years, Alexander relearned the simplest and most important things: getting into the shower, washing himself, and then even doing house cleaning to help his wife.
«It»s still hard to mop the floors; the apartment is big. I«m lazy, but I do it,» admits Sasha.
He not only returned to work but also enrolled in a construction technical college via correspondence, aiming to go from trainee to specialist. Svetlana also started studying alongside Alexander. They listen to lectures and take exams together. Their son Danil finished school during this time and enrolled in a medical college to become a nurse«s aide. He dreams of becoming a surgeon and will apply to medical school.
«We bought a garden plot,» Alexander shares another simple joy. «We»d wanted one for a long time, we made our dream come true. We«ll work tirelessly. We»ll build a workshop, a pool, a sauna. I can«t wait for summer to go there and start working.
Another plan is to get a driver«s license, to get behind the wheel. I»m ready even now, but the problem is that in Tagil there isn«t a single driving school that teaches people with disabilities, only in Yekaterinburg. The options are: either travel to Yekaterinburg for driving lessons and do the theory remotely, or rent an apartment in Yekaterinburg for the duration of the courses. But we»ll solve that. I also want to get a higher education to further develop in my profession. But my nearest goal is to get prosthetics.«
Now, thanks to technological advances, prosthetics can be fitted even in such a severe case, when there are no hip joints. The prostheses themselves are attached to a special, very complex structure resembling a basket, although movement will still require crutches.
«I recently tried on these prostheses, they were made in Yekaterinburg, at a prosthetic enterprise, they have very good specialists there. I stood up right away. I took two steps forward, two back. Now they»re finishing them up, and everything will be okay. I«m not worried, I»ll learn everything,« says Sasha.
We also told the story of a legless taxi driver from the Ural village of Konevo. He grows potatoes and grapes in his garden and raises his grandchildren.
