A few minutes later he regained consciousness and rushed himself to the hospital, located literally 50 meters away from the place of the incident. There he fell into a coma.
As a child, our hero was not at all aware of the severity of the trauma he had suffered, especially since his parents helped him with everything: dressing, undressing, eating, getting things done in his place. "You don't realize what has happened because you get help from others all the time. It all starts at a mature age, and even then, in some way, you still need to adapt to the situation," Artyom shares.
Since then, he has had both cosmetic prostheses and functional ones. This year, he was introduced to two INDY bionic forearm prostheses.
I received two INDY prostheses and it was quite easy for me to operate them; I adapted to them from day one as this particular type of prosthesis was not something new to me. Now I simply cannot imagine my life without these prostheses, I have gotten used to them and I perform nearly all of my daily activities with them. Of course, I don’t shower and sleep with my prostheses, but I eat, undress, get dressed and perform every other daily activity with them."
Life as a cyborg
Artyom is now 30 and his range of activities is quite diverse. First of all, he works for the Football Federation’s Women's Football Committee and coaches teams. In addition to that, he swims, works out at the gym, plays the virtual piano, and enjoys cycling. In his spare time he watches movies, reads books and scientific articles, goes for walks and makes plans for the future. Not long ago he was one of the heroes featured in our Cyborg News piece.
Where to find the motivation
"Every now and then I go through some rough patches, 'cause I'm just ordinary like everyone else in the world. Sometimes this happens more often, and during these moments my job is not to let myself collapse, and that is when I look for motivation: for example, I may watch a movie, or read a book,” Artyom reveals. “I have read a lot of books, but there is one book that, to my mind and not only for me, is considered one of the most motivating books ever.
The book in question was written by a psychiatrist named Viktor Frankl. It is called "Man's Search for Meaning." To me, this book is a masterpiece because you think, and in fact any person has a tendency to think that their problem is the biggest of all. There's also a joke by another author who says, 'For any man, their life is a mere tragedy'. If you happen to read a book such as this one, about what a person went through, it is certainly highly motivating, and I would definitely recommend that you read it, too."
However, books and movies don’t always help. "Literature can sort of help you embrace yourself," Artem continues, "although if there are problems on an emotional level, or maybe on a psychophysiological one, such as anxiety, fears, and so forth, then it is hard to cope with these only with books. What you really need is the physical presence of a real person who is aware of and understands what you are going through. I have friends, several of whom are psychologists, so I keep in touch with them and they actually do help me."
