Special operations personnel returning to civilian life after being transferred to the reserve need medical care and rehabilitation. But in addition to injuries, veterans often suffer from other complications that are not directly life-threatening, do not manifest as pain, but without rehabilitation can develop and have serious consequences.
These are hearing impairments of varying severity, dizziness, tinnitus and other pathological conditions caused by contusions, acoustic trauma and barotrauma, injuries from mine explosions and other causes. People who have gone through the hell of SVO and have returned to normal life, having received hope that everything is over, tend to pay attention to hearing problems last. And this is a very common problem among people who have been in hot spots.
Without waiting for the violations to significantly affect the quality of life, in the spring of 2024, doctors of a specialized medical center in the Rostov region, on their own initiative and at the expense of the company, carried out audiological diagnostics on 50 servicemen who were undergoing general rehabilitation at the Topol sanatorium in Taganrog. As the results of the survey showed, more than half of the patients need hearing rehabilitation. Among them, only a small percentage will benefit from drug treatment. Most of the examined have sensorineural hearing impairment.
– Sensorineural hearing loss (it can be bilateral or unilateral) is a disturbance in the perception of sounds due to damage to the sound perception apparatus itself – the hair cells of the cochlea, the cochlear nerve or the auditory centres of the brain. It can be complete from birth or develop from normal levels to the first, second, third and fourth degree. Unfortunately, this is an irreversible process. There are no medications to eliminate the pathology, explains Elena Anokhina, a candidate of medical sciences and audiologist-ENT. – For such people, technical means of rehabilitation (hearing aids) are recommended to compensate for hearing loss.
– There are no open official statistics on how many SVO participants in the region have hearing impairments. But we assume that in the Rostov region alone about a thousand people need audiological care,” says Dmitry Bochkarev, director of the MasterSlukh network of clinics. – I think the picture is more or less the same in other regions. And these are only those participants in the military campaign who already have very specific complaints.
They need systemic help and rehabilitation, which begins with a series of diagnostic tests, including consultation with an audiologist. Initial and repeated appointments can be made within the framework of the state guarantee program at the expense of the Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund – for example, our network of clinics operates on this system in the regions of presence: in the Rostov region, Stavropol Territory, Kurgan and Kaliningrad regions. And the next stage is additional research, referral for disabilities and hearing aids.
The clinic offers diagnostics and medical consultations to SVO participants undergoing rehabilitation at their own expense.
“But we can no longer finance mass screening and provision of necessary technical means for rehabilitation of all SVO participants who need it,” says Bochkarev. – There is one more problem. According to the law, preferential technical means of rehabilitation (TSR) and hearing impairment are granted to those who are diagnosed with hearing loss of III – IV degree, according to the international classification. But a significant proportion of those examined are found to have I – II degree. That is, they cannot claim disability, but this does not mean that they do not need help and compensation for hearing loss. Accordingly, additional funds are needed to provide hearing aids to such patients.
Therefore, there is an urgent need for a public-private partnership to raise funds for additional rehabilitation programs for SVO participants with the help and support of foundations and other public associations.
