The St. Catherine Foundation Shares Another Heartwarming Story with Novy Den
Yegor's Fight for Mobility: How a Boy with Encephalopathy Finds Hope in High-Tech Rehab
With the foundation's support, a boy named Yegor, who suffers from a severe illness, is learning to walk.
For the first six months, Ksenia and Alexei Pimonov's lives were filled with joy over their son Yegor's early milestones—his first rolls, holding his head up, and attempts to feed himself. But suddenly, everything changed: Yegor stopped trying to move on his own. This marked the beginning of endless doctor visits and a long diagnostic process. The diagnosis was devastating: developmental delay with genetic complications and progressive encephalopathy. Now eight years old, Yegor has spent nearly seven and a half of those years in rehabilitation.
Throughout this time, his parents have stood by him. With the growing number of therapeutic and rehabilitation sessions—and Yegor becoming heavier as he grows—the family made a difficult decision: Alexei would leave his job to stay by his son's side full-time during this challenging period. The new rehabilitation course focuses on activating the sensorimotor networks in Yegor's brain responsible for walking, fully funded by the St. Catherine Foundation. Additionally, the foundation helped the Pimonov family purchase essential specialized equipment—a car seat and a wheelchair for Yegor.
"Last year, we turned to the St. Catherine Foundation for help because my son needs near-constant rehabilitation, along with specialized rehabilitation tools—costs that are simply astronomical and beyond what our family can afford," says Yegor's mother, Ksenia Pimonova. "And then, just before New Year's, they gave us this incredible gift. Right now, our top priority is teaching Yegor to walk—helping him understand how to make movements that come naturally to us but are an entire science for him."
Ksenia's hope that Yegor might one day walk was reignited when she learned about the Lokomat—a device at the UGMK-Health clinic that replicates natural human gait by stimulating foot receptors and activating nerve impulses in the brain's cortical regions. Now, twice a week, Alexei takes Yegor for massages to tone his muscles, followed by mechanotherapy sessions. There, Yegor works on a specialized trainer that teaches his muscles the correct way to walk. Through an expanded feedback system, the device also stimulates the brain areas responsible for movement. What's more, the training is gamified, encouraging little Yegor to stay active and motivated to move independently.
