Roman Kostomarov.
Photo: Olga RODINA
The “Facets of Personal Branding” forum is currently being held in Moscow, in which renowned speakers will participate. Olympic champion and figure skater Roman Kostomarov, who this year suffered a serious illness and amputation of limbs, candidly told the forum participants how everything happened, what was the worst and how he managed to recover. KP.RU was present in the room. When sharing the difficult details of his life, Roman behaved well, however, once, when the conversation turned to disability, the athlete’s voice still shook. All this time, Kostomarov was supported by his wife Oksana Domnina, who was sitting in the front row.
About how it all happened
Everything happened very quickly. We perform at the Luzhniki “Christmas trees” until January 5th or 7th. Then we did some street shows with Ilya Averbukh around the Moscow region. Yes, I was a little sick, but nothing new. This has happened before. Well, I got sick on New Year’s Day. My stupidity was that I dulled all this pain and cough with painkillers. My shoulder hurt, but it was an old injury. Apparently all these pills and injections contributed to the weakening of my immunity. I understand now. I didn’t understand it then.
And on January 10, when I got home, I already had such a cough that it stabbed my side. I realized that it was better to call an ambulance and get an injection or something else. I never expected to wake up on January 17th or 20th, with black legs and black hands. I was under so much anesthesia that they barely brought me out of my coma. But I didn’t understand this. But all my loved ones who were around understood it, for which I thank them very much! If my wife, my brother and my parents were not there, it is unlikely that my heart would have been able to bear the fact that absolutely everything had been closed to me. Only the heart works…
Roman Kostomarov participated in the “Facets of personal branding” forum.
Photo: Olga RODINA
About amputation
Then when I woke up, I realized that something was completely wrong, because I was still in the hospital and this was some kind of horror. I saw what happened to my arms and legs and I was horrified. Everything in bandages, in some kind of tubes. How is that? After all, I was the healthiest person in the world and played sports constantly.
The worst was when many doctors gathered around me and said that amputation of my feet was necessary because “they died.” Here, of course, I burst into bitter tears. Later, I often regretted that I had not said that it was not necessary to touch anything and I would have simply left this world. When I was left absolutely alone with my thoughts, I thought a lot that it was not so much scary to die, but rather to remain disabled. And at first I really regretted being alive. I understood what it was like now. So what will I do next? Why let a person like that live? This is a big question for me. But time heals. Little by little they explained to me that it was possible to walk with a prosthesis.
About prostheses
Prosthetists and doctors came to see me. At first they taught me to walk. One man was missing a leg and said he could live. But he still didn’t console me. I cried every time I saw the prosthesis. I cried every time I saw what had to be done for this. Before putting on the prostheses, it is necessary to carry out enormous physical activity, for several months, just lying in bed, you have to do exercises, some kind of pumping, because your athletic body has completely atrophied. The muscles atrophied. You can’t lift your head off the pillow because you’ve been lying in this position for several months. My entire physical form was gone. Before getting prosthetics, I exercised every day and recovered. It was necessary to restore the muscular corset, because without it you will not be able to walk.
THE NAIS IS OFFICIAL EDITOR ON NAIS NEWS