The Aghajanyan family, forcibly displaced from the city of Martuni in Artsakh, found themselves in a difficult social situation. After arriving in Armenia, another misfortune happened to them: Liana Aghajanyan’s 18 and 21-year-old children got into a car accident. On December 29, 2023, their car, in which her son and daughter Anna were, got into a car accident on the Echmiadzin-Armavir highway. The daughter received numerous bodily injuries.
“The first surgery after the car accident was performed at the Surb Astvatsamayr Medical Center in Yerevan. As a result of the accident, she received a hematoma on her head. She remained under the supervision of doctors for two months. Then we transferred her to Arabkir Medical Center, where she stayed for 5 months, receiving rehabilitation treatment, then she underwent plastic surgery at the Wigmore Family Health Center, from where my daughter was transferred to the intensive care and rehabilitation department of Mikayelyan University Hospital. From the end of December 2023 until today, our life has been spent in hospitals. At first, my daughter’s condition was very bad. For months, we did not know what to expect. There was a period when her situation was completely hopeless, but now that she is in the rehabilitation center, positive dynamics are noticeable. Although she still does not walk, talk, and cannot eat on her own, we notice that she is getting better. She already recognizes and responds to all of us with her eyes, which inspires great hope,” the mother said in an interview with Forrights.am, noting that the girl still needs long-term treatment, but they can no longer pay the hospital expenses.
“So far, I have pawned gold, taken out loans, acquaintances and strangers have helped, and now I have no means, but she has to continue her rehabilitation treatment at Mikayelyan Hospital. The last surgery was three months ago, a part of her skull was missing, and they put in a plastic part. One day in the hospital costs 65 thousand drams, I pay about two million drams for a month [about $5,000]. The doctors say that after four or five months they will have to remove the devices that help her breathe and eat,” Liana Aghajanyan presented the situation.
The family’s social situation has become so difficult that the mother wants to apply for help to the “My Step” foundation headed by Anna Hakobyan. “I want to meet Anna Hakobyan to ask for help.”
Liana lives in Yerevan with her son and other daughter, and her son’s friend has offered her an apartment. “We are staying at an acquaintance’s house; my son’s friends are helping us stay in this house. I don’t know if my son’s friend pays rent or not, but we don’t, we don’t have the opportunity to rent a house.”
The Aghajanyans spent “hard days” in Artsakh. On September 19, 2023, Liana’s son participated in the fight against the Azerbaijani attack. “He was in Akna, where they blocked the road so that the Azerbaijanis wouldn’t advance. He was wounded, he received shrapnel wounds in the leg,” she said.
Narek Kirakosyan