Pavlov Vladislav and Kapustin Egor

It was October 9, 2009. Eleven o'clock at night. Ira was waiting for the return of her boyfriend, Egor Kapustin, who went from Krasnoyarsk to Bogotol to bring his grandfather to the operation. Together with Ira, Nastya, the wife of Egor's friend, Vlad Pavlov, was spending time at her house. The guys have been friends for many years, since college, so they went on the road together. Suddenly Ira's phone rang... "Nastya, it's Egor!" she was delighted when she saw the number. And I heard in the phone: "Ira, we didn't get there! We have no legs!".
Everything happened in a matter of seconds. A car coming towards me blinded me with the high beam of its headlights. And a moment later, the guys saw two people staggering along the highway. Egor braked and twisted the steering wheel, trying to avoid them, his Suzuki was carried into the oncoming lane, the car flew tangentially into the fence. The torn-off iron channel pierced through it twice. Vlad instinctively managed to curl his legs, his feet were cut off. For Egor, both legs are above the knee.

- I immediately "switched off", - Yegor recalls. - And Vlad did not lose consciousness. He first felt himself all over — everything seems to be intact, - alive! And then when I looked down, the blood was gushing. Cars stopped, people ran up to us, said - "now, now", and they left! Apparently, it was a very scary sight. Vlad tied one leg with a string from his pants, and the other had nothing. So we lay there, bleeding. Finally someone called an ambulance, we were taken to the hospital.

Ira and Nastya, having learned about the accident, rushed to Achinsk, to the hospital. The first thing they saw was a nurse nervously smoking on the porch: "Horror! I've never seen anything like this...". The girls were allowed to join the guys.

- Egor surprised everyone, - Irina recalls. - He tried to smile, he also calmed us down, he said everything would be fine. And Vlad was very depressed, in shock. Young, strong guys! Both do not drink, work in good positions. Vladislav was 25 - he worked as a supervisor at Orimi Trade, Egor was 27 — a design engineer at Kraspanmontazh LLC. The whole life is ahead, and here ... the disabled!

The girls appealed to all concerned people to raise money to save the guys. We managed to collect a significant amount. And of course, there were curious ones: "Won't you leave Vlad and Egor?". They admit that at first it was just infuriating. Then they began to answer calmly: "We will be together!". Some did not hesitate to advise: "Disperse! You don't have any children, what's keeping you?". The girls answered one thing: "These guys deserve it."

Years passed, and the main question is whether the guys managed to keep their relationship? After all, it's one thing to make promises, and quite another to fulfill them, so difficult.

If you look at the pages of the guys in the social network, then Vlad Pavlov can find a lot of photos. Vacation in Turkey! Vlad is on prosthetics, in shorts and a light T–shirt, tanned, smiling and happy. But the elephant raises ... skinny Nastya!

- Of course, we are together, - in response to our confused question, Nastya even seemed offended. And she told the main thing: both they and Ira and Egor are doing well!
- We have been together for so long, - Nastya smiles. – We met in a mobile phone chat when I was only 16 and Vlad was 20. We corresponded, were friends for a long time, started living together, got married, planned to become parents and... that accident. Of course, there's nothing to be deceitful about: it was very difficult.
- For three weeks I was going crazy, - Vlad does not hide. - The psychologist was called, and yelled, there were tantrums. I was afraid that my wife would leave. She spent the night in the next bed or in the corridor, saying that life goes on. I didn't believe it... and I was in complete despair. It was like I woke up when they showed me a photo of our wrecked car. That channel could have pierced right through. I let go when I realized that I could have died altogether.
Vlad began to get used to a new life, he had to learn the most basic things anew: - How can you get into the bath without legs? It's a bunch of stools, you're like Hercules, pulling yourself up on your hands... my wife helps, always there. And so it is in everything.
It took Vlad a month to learn to walk again. The prosthetist Armen Mikayelovich (Mikhalych) found on the Internet according to reviews and recommendations, after a short conversation I realized that I would only do prostheses with him.

My husband has never seen Nastya cry, although even a sentimental book could move her to tears before. 

- I'm generally a whiny person by nature, - Nastya admits. – But I tried to hold on, to support my husband. After all, it is a hundred thousand times more difficult for him. That's how, tell me, could I leave my loved one? But you can't regret it, it humiliates. We were lucky that the boys turned out to be strong in spirit and survived it with dignity.

Only once Nastya could not restrain herself. Immediately after returning from the Achinsk hospital, I went to the grocery store. The sellers are all familiar, they ask: "Why haven't you been here for so long?". And then she burst into tears, smearing carcasses on her cheeks and sobbing, told, and it became easier... There were no more such breakdowns.

On the fifth anniversary of the wedding, Nastya delighted her husband: "We're going to have a baby!".

Now Nastya and Vlad already have two children. Artemiy, he is 9 years old and Leva is 4 years old. Vlad moved from Krasnoyarsk to Krasnodar. He opened his own company. Travels a lot with his family around the country and the world. And for more than 10 years, Mikhalych has always had prosthetics, because it has not been possible to find a better one yet.

And what about Egor and Irina?

- I had two girlfriends, we went for a walk with them, - Egor recalls. – A third joined them, then a fourth, who became my wife.

They lived together for six years, and got married two years later. The bride set one condition – the wedding should be in a simple, district Leninsky registry office, her parents exchanged rings there, and not in the regional Wedding Palace, where most couples strive to get to. And everything is very modest. They were alone at the wedding ceremony, only in the evening they celebrated this event with the closest relatives.

- Egor was one hundred percent sure of himself, he did not doubt for a single second that I would be next to him, - says Ira. 

Egor walks on prosthetic hips with microprocessor control. The cost of each prosthesis is about 4 million. Armen Mikayelovich also has Vlad prosthetics. Prosthetics, like everything in Russia, receives every 2 years at the expense of the state, according to the system of compensation for expenses for independent purchase, and the question of where to find money to first buy prostheses, and then receive compensation, helps to solve the prosthetic enterprise and everyone is happy.

Egor again got a job as an engineer at his previous job. As before, he runs up stairs and on construction sites, although much less. Every morning, he slowly, so as not to wake up the family, puts on prosthetics in a special wide chair, has breakfast, drinks coffee and leaves. And so on until the evening. Everywhere by myself and on my own car, which had to be converted to manual control.

- I, as a woman, do not feel flawed and inferior, - Irina says firmly. - Another man with legs will not give what Egor gives me. And it's not about money, but about what kind of person he is - very positive and kind.

Irina and Egor have a son, Kiryusha, growing up. Egor admits that he often thinks: "What a blessing that I'm alive!". 

The example of the guys shows that it doesn't matter what happened, the main thing is to be close to support each other and everything will definitely work out, because amputation is not a sentence.