PERRYSBURG, Ohio — The war in Ukraine rages on and with thousands being killed and injured, a local prosthetics team is just getting back from offering help to Ukrainian amputees.
"If you're not sure how important this, how grateful we should be for this, take a look at what's going on in the world," said Chris Perry, founder of Perry Prosthetics in Perrysburg.
He and upper extremity specialist Michael Schroeder completed a 16-day humanitarian mission in Lviv, Ukraine, helping to fit nine prosthetic arms to eight Ukrainian amputees.
Ottobock, a prosthetic tech company based out of Germany that specializes in elbows, paid for travel, while Aether Biomedical, a prosthetic tech company based out of Poland that specializes in hands, paid for their stay.
"It's definitely a good experience for us to go do that and just help some more people," Schroeder said.
Perry's mission for helping people in this capacity comes from a personal story.
When he was 16 years old, he was severely injured in a motorcycle accident and lost his right leg.
Since that point, he's worked for multiple prosthetic companies, eventually opening Perry Prosthetics in 2000 and helping thousands ever since.
"In my career, I'd say around 3,000," Perry said.
The two worked at the Superhumans Center in Lviv, which is a prosthetic rehabilitation center.
In a matter of 10 working days, the men, alongside specialists in Lviv, fitted the nine arms.
But for them, more work can and still needs to be done.
"The people coming into that center were coming with multiple injuries, not just arms and legs, but reconstruction surgeries," Perry said. "You'd look around and people are missing multiple limbs."
He said that upon leaving the country, there were approximately 280 people still in need of help with receiving prosthetics.
So while the progress made changed eight lives, the hope is to return to Lviv soon.
"It was definitely a collaboration, and I'd like to go back," Perry said.
"It would definitely be beneficial to them for us to come back and help some more," Schroeder added.