8-year-old Yeva Kapusterynska and her parents moved to the U.S. seeking safety from war-torn Ukraine. When the family was hit by a drunk driver in Kansas, pediatric complex care hospital Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital came to their aid.
Maryland Heights, Mo. (July 1, 2024) - When the war in Ukraine started, Yevgeniy and Inna Kapusterynsky, along with their daughter Yeva, knew they needed to leave their hometown of Odesa to find safety.
They contacted Welcome.US, an initiative that helps Americans support refugees looking to move to America. The organization matched the family with Joe Wiegman of Oxford, Kansas, who would become their host father and offer the family a place to stay while they adjusted to life in the U.S.
The family arrived in the U.S. in September 2023 and quickly started settling in. Yeva got to go to school for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic and the war, and Inna and Yevgeniy had just bought a new car.
But then the unthinkable happened Dec. 2, 2024: Yeva, Inna, Yevgeniy and Joe were traveling on the highway in their new car when a drunk driver came across the median and hit them. All four sustained serious injuries.
“I had a fractured pubic bone, my husband broke both his legs and a rib,” Inna said. “But my daughter suffered the most. She had a brain and back injury and she could not breathe on her own.”
After she was stabilized in the ICU, Yeva needed a specialized medical facility to address her unusual combination of severe injuries, but there were no hospitals in Kansas that could meet her medical, rehabilitation, psychological, and family support needs. There are very few hospitals in the U.S. for children with complex medical needs. Insurance issues also created additional hurdles.
But then the family heard about Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital in St. Louis, the only hospital of its kind in Missouri and one of only a select few in the country. The hospital specializes in caring for children and their families with the most complex conditions, illnesses and injuries.
Ranken Jordan said Yeva could attend at no charge to the family.
“We heard Yeva’s story and we knew she was the perfect candidate for our hospital,” said Nick Holekamp, MD, Chief Medical Officer for Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital. “We helped the family sort out the financial aspects and we worked with Kansas Medicaid to ensure Yeva and her family didn’t have to pay a dime.”
On the day they arrived, they met Dr. Eugene Evra, one of Ranken Jordan’s rehabilitation specialists, who was raised by his Ukrainian parents in western Russia. For the first time in the family's long ordeal, their care team was being led by a specialist who could communicate with them in their native language.
Yeva spent five months at Ranken Jordan and no longer needs feeding or breathing tubes. She speeds around in her power wheelchair and she is starting to speak again after not being able to talk since the accident.
Yeva was discharged from Ranken Jordan in May 2024 and is now back with her parents. The family has temporarily relocated to St. Louis while Yeva undergoes outpatient rehabilitation therapy at Ranken Jordan. Their plan is to return to their new family and community in Oxford, Kansas.
“Having Yeva back at home has been wonderful,” Inna said. “Our story is very difficult to talk about and things have been hard. I take care of Yeva full-time now and my husband is still rehabilitating from his injuries from the accident, so he cannot work right now. But we are very grateful for Ranken Jordan and all of the people we have met in St. Louis and helped us while we’ve been here.”
Dr. Holekamp added that caring for the whole family, not just the child, is crucial for all of Ranken Jordan’s patients. The hospital team helped Inna and Yevgeniy in other ways, such as arranging Ubers when they needed a ride and flying out Joe Wiegman, the family’s host father, from Kansas so he could visit the family.
“I cannot fathom what it’s been like for the Kapusterynsky family but my hope is our team at Ranken Jordan has been a bright light for a family who has endured so much,” Holekamp said. “Yeva’s story is a powerful example of the importance of caring for the whole family, not just the patient. St. Louis is lucky to have a hospital like Ranken Jordan because it allows us to care not only for children in our local community but for children in the midwest and around the world.”
To learn more about Ranken Jordan, visit rankenjordan.org.
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Media Contact: Haley Raymond, Leigh Walters Communications, (207) 227-7850, HaleyR@lwcstrategies.com
Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital
Ranken Jordan is a pediatric bridge hospital that cares for kids from birth to 21 who are well enough to leave a traditional hospital but need help before they go home. The only hospital of its kind in Missouri and one of only a select few in the country, Ranken Jordan specializes in caring for children and their families with the most complex conditions, illnesses and injuries, bridging the gap between hospital and home. The 60-bed hospital uses an innovative care model, Care Beyond the Bedside, which gets children out of their hospital rooms, activating the healing power of play. Located in the heart of the Midwest, Ranken Jordan serves patients from across the region at its state-of-the-art facility.
