"Thankful to God he's alive": Volgograd teen lost leg saving children

The tragic story was told by the mother of a disabled man, classified as Group III, who as a teenager rushed to help other children who nearly died a horrible death at a construction site in the Krasnooktyabrsky district of Volgograd. As a result, the rescuer lost his leg but was left without the compensation he was due, and the elderly woman is now forced to beg for food and medicine, having lost hope for justice.

«Your son was crushed»: Tragedy at the construction site

The tragedy occurred on 28 March 1986. 14-year-old Yura was reading a book on the roof of a garage on Vinnitskaya Street that day. When he heard children screaming from the direction of the construction site, he rushed to help without a second thought.

— I don’t remember what they were building there, but they had dug a large pit. The workers had gone somewhere for lunch, and the young children had climbed into the hole, wanting to build a shack. But the soil was wet, just after the rain, and they began to sink into it,

the woman recounts.

Heavy metal piles were stacked like a mountain next to the pit. When Yura extended a leg to the schoolchildren drowning in the loose soil, one of the beams rolled off the stack and fell directly onto his shin.

— I was just walking home from work, with my younger child by my side. The children ran up to me, shouting, «Your son was crushed!» I didn«t immediately understand what had happened, but when I ran up to the pit, I almost fainted from horror.

«You should have applied earlier»: Hospital and court

The boy was taken, as his mother recalls, to Clinical Hospital No. 7, where he stayed for almost two years. Doctors tried to save his leg, but unfortunately, the limb had to be amputated.

— I pawned all our belongings at a second-hand shop back then to buy medicine and food to bring him in the hospital. Later, when we were being discharged and collecting documents, they told us they had lost our medical records. Is that normal at all?

Legal proceedings soon began. In January 1987, the foreman of the Krasny Oktyabr (Red October) factory was found guilty under Part 2 of Article 215 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (violation of safety rules in construction work). That autumn, the factory was ordered to pay 526.61 Soviet rubles in damages and 417.6 rubles for lost earnings.

However, the 2000s arrived, the enterprise was reorganized, and in the process, it shed its obligations to pay compensation. According to the court«s conclusion, these obligations were supposed to transfer to the state, but this did not happen.

— The judge at the hearing was very young,

the mother laments.

— After the hearing, I approached her. I asked, «How can this be?» And she told me, «You should have filed an application earlier!» And she herself looked down.

What now?

In turn, Roman Grebennikov, head of the Spartak law firm, believes such a court decision must be appealed.

— The reason for the refusal is contained in the court decision itself,

says Roman Grebennikov.

— The other matter is that I disagree with this decision and very much hope that the prosecutor will appeal it to a higher instance — the Volgograd Regional Court. Because the prosecutor«s position here is more objective and aimed at preserving the social status of the disabled person with corresponding payments.

Yuri now lives in a rented apartment in the Sovetsky district. The state allocated him a room in a dormitory, but, as his mother states, it is impossible for a sick person to live there. To pay for his treatment, his mother sold their home and now squeezes into a communal apartment.

— The attitude towards us in this case is terrible, just terrible,

says the mother.

— I tried going to free lawyers: they tried something, they all advised writing to Bastrykin (head of Russia«s Investigative Committee), but nothing was resolved. And I»m just thankful to God that my son is alive, you understand? Alive.