Kostomarov: “The surgeon said that 2-3% of people survive in cases like mine”

Olympic figure skating champion Roman Kostomarov spoke about the uniqueness of his case, because in such situations, according to the surgeon who operated on the skater, 2-3% of people survive.

In early 2023, Kostomarov was hospitalized due to pneumonia and complications. The 47-year-old athlete began suffering from tissue necrosis and underwent several limb amputations. Kostomarov then underwent prosthetic surgery, and in December he returned to ice skating in Ilya Averbukh’s show.

“This case was unique for everyone. I never thought there could be such consequences. I knew people were dying from Covid, from pneumonia. But I didn’t know that a person would be left without arms and legs after such an illness. If I had known this I would have done something differently, maybe taken antibiotics. I never took any medicine, everything healed on me like a dog.

My case is really rare. For the experienced surgeon who operated on me, I was the first in his office when the patient practically died and remained alive. According to him, 2 to 3% of people survive such cases.

I’m glad to be alive. But I was absolutely not happy when I first saw what had happened to me and what was left of me. Yes, it’s not easy for me now, but little by little I overcome everything.

Almost all my organs were failing, only my heart was functioning. At such times the heart cannot bear it, it carries the whole burden on itself. Somehow it survived for me.

I saw a similar example after going to a prosthetist. We went with a prosthetist to see a boy in the hospital. He has the same amputation as me, arms and legs. As a result, the boy died after 2-3 months,” reports correspondent Kostomarov.

Kostomarov, together with Tatyana Navka, won gold at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, also became world champion twice and won the European Championships three times.