Meet Armenia’s Defenders: Vardan
January 28 is Army Day in Armenia, a day to honor the Armenian Armed Forces, and our current campaign to give the Homeland Defender’s Rehab Center the equipment it needs to care for an additional 300 wounded soldiers per month, free of charge, is 75% funded. To learn more about what the center means to Armenia’s wounded soldiers, we’re bringing you another soldier’s story who is currently receiving care there.
Vardan Vardanyan is a 29-year-old senior artillery officer from Meghri. When the second Artsakh war broke out last year, he and the 22 soldiers under his command were sent to Jabrayil in Artsakh to defend against the Azerbaijani onslaught.
“I was injured on the night of October 10. We were receiving military supplies, as we would every night. the truck with the supplies came as usual — we didn’t have any lights on, even though it was dark, and we were under the cover of trees and weren’t making any noise, as everyone knew their job so there was no need to speak. The only sound you could hear was that of the supply crates. But that didn’t matter. A Bayraktar [drone] hit us. We didn’t hear or see it coming.”
Though the rocket that injured Vardan struck just 2–3 meters away from him, he miraculously didn’t lose consciousness.
“As I fell I understood that I couldn’t feel my legs anymore, that I couldn’t feel my right hand, and I was struggling to breathe, and in that moment my soldiers came to help. I kept asking if there had been any deaths, and they told me no. I was momentarily losing my sight and blacking out. I didn’t know that my lungs were wounded, but I was struggling to breathe, and there came a point where I couldn’t breathe at all, and I thought to myself that this is my last breath and I’m dead after this. But then I woke up.”
Vardan was immediately rushed to the hospital. When he arrived, he had already lost 2 liters of blood. His lungs, spine and right arm were in critical condition. “When I got to the hospital I said to the doctor, ‘Doctor, you must save me,’ and the doctor said to me, ‘If you’re talking to me then you’re already saved, you’re going to be OK.’”
Today Vardan is more than OK. After several operations on his hand and lungs, he’s now receiving physiotherapy at the Homeland Defender’s Rehab Center in Yerevan. When he arrived at the center, he was bedridden. “I couldn’t sit up for a long time or maneuver a wheelchair, I couldn’t put on my own clothes. I couldn’t do anything.”
But after just 3 days at the center, he was able to sit up in a wheelchair and maneuver it himself.
“The difference is very, very big. Day after day I feel the difference. You have to have the desire [to heal], but no matter how much you want it, the center plays a huge role in the healing process. If it weren’t for the center, its specialists and equipment, I wouldn’t be able to sit, stand or use my right hand.”
“I’m certain that I wouldn’t see the results I’m seeing here elsewhere.”
Vardan says that he’s in touch with his soldiers and friends from the army almost every day. “When I talk to my soldiers I feel very good. When I see that one of them is calling, or when they come to see me — it’s everything to me. Seeing my family sometimes doesn’t make me as happy as seeing one of my soldiers.”
“When I first arrived [at the Homeland Defender’s Rehab Center], one of the soldiers said to ‘Welcome to our home.’ I didn’t understand what he meant at the time, why he said that. But after a couple days I understood that this really is a family, a home with all its members.”
After he heals, Vardan’s plan is to go back to his unit in the army and continue serving.
“There’s this strange desire [I have] for the Soldiers’ Home to be empty. May this home clear out, may there not be a need for this home [the center]. As much as it empties out, the children of this home will never forget this home. May there always be people here, no injured soldiers, just people.”
You can ensure that Armenia’s injured soldiers receive the quality, dignified care they need so that the Soldiers’ Home, one day, is empty, as Vardan beautifully stated, by donating to our current campaign. Your US tax deductible donations will go to securing furniture and equipment for Homeland Defender’s to use in a 4-floor wing of their center currently being remodeled to increase their capacity. Learn more and donate today.
