Three-year-old Olga will live with more than 50 shell fragments inside her body for the rest of her life, a colostomy bag, and persistent pain. Her injuries happened when she picked up an unexploded ordnance outside her home in Ukraine.
According to the United Kingdom charity Save the Children, stories such as Olga’s are becoming more common. Globally, millions of children are at risk of being injured by explosive devices as some 449 million children lived in conflict zones in 2021. In Ukraine, it estimates explosive weapons cause about 68% of recorded civilian child casualties. Despite the fact that children are more likely than adults to die following blast injuries, knowledge of how to treat them is lacking.
“Children are different,” said professor Anthony Bull, director of the Musculoskeletal Medical Engineering Centre at Imperial College London. “They don't have protective equipment. They're small. They have unique physiology. And of course, they have a long life to deal with the results of their injuries.”
About the author
Gabriella Jóźwiak@GabriellaJ
Gabriella Jóźwiak is an award-winning journalist based in London. Her work on issues and policies affecting children and young people in developing countries and the U.K. has been published in national newspapers and magazines. Having worked in-house for domestic and international development charities, Jóźwiak has a keen interest in organizational development, and has worked as a journalist in several countries across West Africa and South America.