Eduard Larionov
Loop Highway and Western High-Speed Diameter, Expoforum and sports stadiums, residential houses and public buildings, harbors and factories: all these are the projects implemented with the involvement of Eduard Larionov. Maybe you’ve never heard about him: Eduard is not a big business owner or prominent architect. He is one of those who stay in the background but move on the whole process: a skilled professional with a long track record as a crane operator, a man with capable hands, and with a heart of gold. He has a big family: wife, three daughters, grand-daughter and mother.
We learned about his disease: agnogenic myeloid metaplasia where bone marrow transplantation is indispensable to the patient’s life, from a letter written by his daughters Katya and Sasha.
It costs at least 18 000 EUR to find a donor in a foreign database, and Eduard needs urgent help.
Narration in first person
From a movie technician to assault forces
I was born in the very heart of St.Petersburg, at the famous Five Corners, and went to the school No. 320 in Pravdy Street. Along with school studies I learned the profession of a movie technician and worked at a cinema theater during the vacations. My favorite movie was Race for the Yankee Zephyr: a plane carrying gold crashes and sinks, and lots of people try in vain to find it. At that time it was really something. It was a foreign production. Our movie-makers could not do anything of this kind, but Soviet war films were very decent.
After high school I completed a college course as a vehicle technician. Meanwhile there were major advances in the movie industry, and they started to use completely different equipment. Moreover, I was not much inclined to continue as a movie technician. However, the motion picture operator certificate is still kept in the briefcase which accompanied me when I returned from the army. Also I retained my “discharge-from-service album” with army photos... and the trigger ring which is used to draw a parachute
The locations of my military service were the Trans-Caucasian Military District, Georgia and Armenia. I was in air assault forces at the very beginning of troublous times in the contemporary history of our country.
My job
After the army service two daughters were born. I worked as a long-haul truck driver. Went for funny truck rides with my daughters. However, there were less funny stories as well: a couple of times I was held a hostage by highway robbers.
For some time there were regular voyages to Vologda: I worked for a construction firm with major projects in the Vologda Region. We built schools, tax office buildings just to name a few. Instead of money, the customer paid in kind: we received boards. They had no money, and boards were a popular product in St.Petersburg. We sold them here. This was our peculiar way of doing business.
Since 2000 I had a regular job in one company. It was very interesting and constantly something new. At the very beginning our company was engaged in forest harvesting, and I took timber to the port on a log truck. I took my daughter to the port. Children are not allowed where, so I covered her with blankets like contraband.
After a while the company purchased a saw bench and started to sell finished products. However, timber is a kind of seasonal work. In order to avoid downtimes during off-seasons, we took long-haul voyages, and later completely focused on long-haul business. But our business went from bad to worse. Profits were low, and the job was not much convenient for the drivers: we rarely happened to see our families. So we discussed the situation with the management and decided to try and buy a crane. Eventually we purchased two cranes and things turned for the better.
Truck cranes are mostly engaged in construction projects. There were major contracts like Zenit Arena, Loop Highway, Western High-Speed Diameter, a big apartment block in front of Botkin Hospital. While a volleyball stadium near the Zenit Arena was built, I worked where at all construction stages, for approximately two years. There were many projects in the Krestovskiy Island. I helped to erect the cable bridge, and worked in the Utkina Zavod district where steel structures are produced for high-speed motorways, and truck cranes are often required. Our company built the Expoforum exhibition center in Shushary. Other projects were, among others, the railway car construction plant in Tikhvin and the Ust-Luga gas-filling facility.
At the very beginning of Putin presidency the city presented him a hydrofoil boat so that he could avoid traffic jams and reach his mansion by water. However, a year later it broke, and I was ordered to replace the boat engine. The most interesting job is to do something you've never done before where you need to figure it out how to arrange your work. Zenit stadium was an interesting, though sometimes frustrating project: I was forced to demolish and take to pieces lots of completed assemblies. Designs were amended all the time: at first we erected staircases, and a while later it was decided that there is no need to have staircases. Thus, we had to saw out and discard lots of concrete and reinforcement elements.
My family
Today my most important devotion is my family. I used to breed aquarium fish, collected post stamps, matchbox labels and coins. Now a have a really big family, and I’m the only man in this “female kingdom”.
Irina, Eduard’s wife
We met in 2009, via a dating site. When we had just a second date he brought with him a huge family photo album with the photos of his daughters, first wife, parents, granddaughter. I have a daughter Lia from my first marriage. Eduard became her father. At the age of 14 she deliberately changed her patronymic and now says with proud that he is her father.
Eduard is a very kind and modest man.
And a perfect craftsman. For instance, Eduard fixed all equipment at three beauty parlors where a have my nails manicured. It seems like he can repair everything and tries to drill down to every malfunction. In our home everything is up and running too.
He really loves his job, and for four years he insisted that I shall test-ride a truck crane. He said: “Just look, it’s really something!”
I’m a health care worker, a speech therapist. I while ago I noticed some worrying symptoms. Eduard has insulin-dependent diabetes, so I insisted that he shall have a thorough examination. At first he was diagnosed with hepatic cirrhosis and put on a diet. After that his blood was checked in more detail, he was referred to hematologists and had puncture testing. His current diagnosis is agnogenic myeloid metaplasia, but initially he was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia. I learned from some printed sources that normal life expectancy for these patients is at least 15 years. At that time the doctors said nothing to me, they just prescribed some drugs and told that Eduard should discuss with me in advance whether we intend to have more children. The question about children sounded reassuring. Interferon drugs were prescribed and things somehow took their course.
This was in the spring of 2010. Nothing happened for four years. In the spring of 2015 Eduard’s stomach began to grow, while he was losing weight. He had a second course of chemotherapy. He looked awful, completely exhausted, his skin went dark. I’ve learned about his agnogenic myeloid metaplasia from the chief of hospital department.
There is a drug called Jaakafi which is produced in Switzerland. It’s not a cure-all, but can help. The cheapest price available in Moscow at that point of time was 165 thousand rubles per pack. We were told that at least five packs are need before Eduard can qualify for subsidized treatment and marrow bone transplantation might be considered. For this purpose Eduard needs to take Jaakafi, raise his immunity and have better medical test results.
He has always been a hard worker, but now he has 1st degree of disability and cannot work. I’m a speech therapist, and cannot earn the required money. I asked for help from the friends and parents of my own patients. This was like begging with an outstretched hand. A pack of the drug was bought by the parents of one of my patients. We received affordable help from many people, including my colleagues and classmates from the town of Tikhvin.
The drug had a positive effect, but it got more expensive, 200 thousand rubles per pack. Thanks to an Eduard’s colleague we learned that the hospital has money for drug therapy, and subsidized treatment can be obtained though we were told that this was not the case.
We got an appointment with the director of Raisa Gorbacheva Medical Center who told that marrow bone transplantation was required a long while ago, that Jaakafi is good but it can cease to be effective. Agnogenic myeloid metaplasia usually hits elderly people, but Eduard is just 48. In December we were told that our time reserve is one year. Unfortunately, no appropriate donors were found in Russia, and we were warned that, most likely, the potential donor can be found in the U.S. or Brazil. Thus, the required amount can be even higher than 18 000 EUR.