PORT ANGELES – An account has been established for those who wish to help a Ukrainian sailor who nearly lost a leg during a shipboard accident in November.
Vyacheslav Kornya, 45, of Odessa, Ukraine is staying in Port Angeles while doctors try to save his badly damaged left leg.
Donations can be given at Sound Community Bank at 541 N. Fifth Ave., Sequim.
The account is under the name Vyacheslav Kornya, donation account number 0018749279.
It was established by Oksana Ostrovsky, a surgical nurse at Olympic Medical Center who coincidentally attended school in Kornya’s hometown of Odessa before immigrating to the U.S.
Ostrovsky has helped translate for Kornya, although Kornya’s English has improved during his stay.
His wife and 14-year-old daughter are at their home in the Ukraine and Kornya talks to them using pre-paid phone cards.
Kornya’s left leg was shattered by a runaway ship piston during a storm Nov. 15, 30 miles west of Cape Flattery.
He was plucked from the 700-foot container ship Iolcos Glory by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crew and brought to OMC.
There, an ashen-faced Kornya asked emergency room doctors and nurses to save his leg.
He would have been taken to a Seattle hospital, but the storm had closed air and land routes.
Following his injuries, he underwent nine surgeries, including bone and skin grafts.
