A 13-year-old boy from the Lviv region received a new kidney on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Vitalik Shikhardin, a 13-year-old from Dolyna in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, received a new kidney on the Feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God. The life-saving transplant was performed by specialists at St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital and the Transplantology Center at St. Panteleimon Hospital in Lviv.
This day was particularly symbolic for the family.
During every hemodialysis session, the boy’s father prayed to the Virgin Mary and asked for his son’s recovery. It was on the eve of the feast day that the family was informed that a donor had been found for Vitalik.
Vitalik is one of six children in the Shykhardin family. The boy’s health problems began in early childhood.
When he was just 8 months old, doctors diagnosed him with a congenital defect of the urinary system and bladder spasm. As a result, his kidney function gradually deteriorated.
The last few years have been particularly difficult for the boy. Vitalik no longer had the strength to attend school regularly, so he switched to homeschooling.
His kidney condition deteriorated critically—his creatinine level exceeded 800, indicating severe kidney failure.
In the spring, Vitalik began living practically according to a hemodialysis schedule.
While his mother stayed home to care for their other five children, his father, Roman, drove his son from Dolyna to Lviv twice a week. There, the boy underwent hours-long procedures during which a machine filtered toxins and excess fluid from his blood.
Due to medical contraindications, none of his relatives could be a donor for Vitalik. Therefore, a posthumous transplant remained his only hope.
The boy was placed on the waiting list.
While his son was undergoing hemodialysis, his father would go to the chapel at St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital every time, where he prayed for his child’s salvation.
Roman recalls that he prayed during each of his son’s treatments. On the eve of the transplant, he once again turned to the Virgin Mary with a plea to help his child.
“I prayed constantly during every procedure. I asked that my child recover as quickly as possible... Because dialysis is very hard on a child. And before that, I went to pray again: ‘Virgin Mother, please help so that everything will be resolved.’ We finished the procedure, got on the minibus, and were already on our way to the train station to go home when the doctor called us and said a donor had been found,” the father recalls.
The family received the life-saving call on the eve of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God.
On August 15, around 1:00 a.m., the doctors began the kidney transplant. The operation lasted five hours.
Vitalik received a new kidney from a deceased adult donor. The surgery was performed jointly by specialists from St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital and the Transplant Center at St. Panteleimon Hospital.
The transplant was technically challenging due to the child’s anatomical features and the very small diameter of his blood vessels. Despite this, the medical team managed to connect the donor organ with exceptional precision.
Most importantly, the kidney began functioning right on the operating table.
After the surgery, the boy’s vital signs began to normalize rapidly.
Vitalik is now in a regular hospital room and is taking his first steps toward a full recovery.
For the family, this transplant offered a chance to give their child a full life again after difficult months on hemodialysis.
Vitalik’s family also expresses their gratitude to the family of the deceased donor for the decision that gave the boy a chance at life, and to the doctors for their professional and tireless work.
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