Not science fiction, but Lviv: a teenager's thigh is being "repaired" with their own stem cells

In Lviv, physicians at the Saint Nicholas Children’s Hospital of the First Medical Association of Lviv for the first time in Ukraine restored the femur of a 14-year-old teenager by injecting stem cells directly into the fracture site.

The successful case was reported by Saint Nicholas Children’s Hospital, publishing details on Facebook. The hospital emphasizes that this technology is currently implemented in Ukraine only here.

The patient is Andriy from Kryvyi Rih. He was born with a heart defect, and at the age of five his vision and coordination began to deteriorate. Doctors diagnosed an Arnold–Chiari malformation, a congenital pathology of the brain structures. In June 2025, the teenager suddenly could not get out of bed: at first paralysis or polio were suspected, but examination revealed a fracture of the femoral neck.

It turned out that the bone fractured without a traumatic cause due to its fragility. Tests showed a critically high creatinine level — about 700, indicating severe kidney damage and disrupted mineral metabolism.

At a hospital in Dnipro the fracture was fixed with screws, but after that his kidney function sharply deteriorated — they completely failed, so the boy is on hemodialysis. Because of weak bone tissue the screws shifted and began to damage the hip joint.

Since the patient needs a kidney transplant, the family turned to the doctors of the First Medical Association of Lviv. At Saint Nicholas Children’s Hospital, orthopedic traumatologists decided to use a modern bone regeneration technique with stem cells; subsequently they plan to perform a kidney transplant for Andriy.

During the procedure, stem cells isolated from the patient’s own adipose tissue were injected into the fracture area. According to the medical staff, such therapy stimulates the formation of new bone cells and promotes healing. Two weeks after the intervention, the teenager is already putting weight on the leg with the support of a walker, and after full bone union doctors expect him to walk independently.

Previously we wrote:

• In Kyiv, 13-year-old Ivan posthumously saved four lives through organ donation
• At OHMATDYT, surgeons reconstructed a 12-year-old boy’s genital organ using cheek tissue
• Unique three-stage operation: kidney from the father, liver from the mother
• “Corridor of Honor” and new life for patients: in Mykolaiv a multi-organ donor retrieval was performed for the first time
• In Mykolaiv, doctors performed a unique laparoscopic operation on a 6-year-old girl and saved her life