Igor Pavlovets is one of the “children of Chernobyl”. He was born without a right arm and with unnaturally short legs and twisted feet attributed to the explosion of the Chernobyl power plant. Today he has a wife, two children and lives with interior design.
- 31 people died directly as a result of the accident at the Chernobyl power plant. And due to radiation sickness, 4 died. people, although some sources give a higher number
- The catastrophe led to a serious increase in the incidence of oncological diseases. The youngest fell ill, incl. for thyroid cancer
- However, the latest research shows that the Chernobyl catastrophe did not cause any serious health consequences in the DNA of the children of the “Chernobyl children”
- You can find more similar news on the TvoiLokony home page
On the night of April 25-26, 1986, the nuclear power unit number four of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant had an accident. As a result of the destruction of the nuclear reactor, the area of the present-day border of Our Country, Belarus and Ukraine with an area of approx. 150 thousand square kilometers was contaminated. km sq. As a result of the contamination, over 350 thousand people were evacuated and resettled. people.
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- Read: What might be the health effects of dropping an atomic bomb? The inhabitants of Hiroshima were examined
The Chernobyl disaster caused over six thousand people in the three countries mentioned above. cases of thyroid cancer. These cases mainly concerned children and adolescents, i.e. people in the period of dynamic growth of the whole body. Moreover, the child’s thyroid gland is the organ that is most exposed to unfavorable ionizing radiation.
One of the adults of the “Children of Chernobyl” is Igor Pavlovets. The man was born on March 3, 1987, without a right arm and with abnormally short legs and twisted feet. His fate changed when he met Victor Mizzi, president of the Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline association, who still supports children from Ukraine and Belarus, as well as their families. The president arranged for the boy to stay in London for three weeks when suddenly he was taken in by Barbara and Roy Bennets. Thanks to physiotherapists, he made surprising progress, learned to drive a car and swim.
A few years ago Igor stood on a wedding carpet with Alice, a girl with whom he had been friends for several years. So far, they have two children. They live in the suburbs of London. A man earns money by designing interiors.
- Take a look: What is acute radioactive syndrome? Could Chernobyl soldiers have it?
However, not everyone was so lucky. Victims who were born after April 1986 with severe disability or disease were often isolated in “boarding houses”. These are centers in deep provinces where victims were locked up. The only division that functions there depends on the degree of physical disability. So there are people who are only lying down, those who can use wheelchairs and those who are able to move around independently.
Fot. Screen: YouTube/Journeyman Pictures
Many of their youngest residents are children abandoned by their parents right after birth due to their dysfunctions and handicaps. Yes, i.a. in the case of Sergei Charlap, suffering from cerebral palsy. The boy is staying in an orphanage in Wesnowa, Belarus (the photo below is from 2006, when he was 12).
Fot. Getty Images/ Tom Stoddart / Contributor
A similar fate befell Sasha Prokopienko, who suffers from hydrocephalus and cerebral palsy (the photo of a 9-year-old boy was taken in 2006. His further fate is unknown).
Fot. Getty Images/ Tom Stoddart / Contributor
Both boys and many other “Chernobyl children” are helped by the Chernobyl Children International Foundation, which helps by providing medical care and hospice care to children from Chernobyl, and also organizes trips to Ireland for some of the children.
- Check it out: The situation in Chernobyl. The increase in radiation is the result of the movement of heavy equipment
Contrary to appearances, the memory of children who died as a result of an accident or its effects is still alive. In the capital of Ukraine — In Kiev, a Chernobyl museum was created to commemorate the victims. One of the walls is completely covered with photos of children from the contaminated zone.
Photo. East News/ Wojtek Laski
Consequences for the “Grandsons of Chernobyl”
Nearly 35 years after the Chernobyl disaster, in-depth DNA testing of children born to victims of radioactive contamination in Ukraine offers hope for the future. From 2014 to 2018, a team led by Meredith Yeager of the American National Cancer Institute, sequenced the genome of 130 post-Chernobyl babies and their parents. It turned out that the Chernobyl catastrophe did not cause any serious consequences in the DNA of the “Chernobyl grandchildren”. A stronger factor, for example, was the age of the parents.
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