Freeport woman reunites with dad, family from Ukraine fleeing Russian invasion
When Russia began invading Ukraine, Svitlana Gargano watched the war unfold from Freeport, agonizing over whether her family, and her hospitalized father, would escape.
Her diabetic dad, Leonid Los, 59, was being treated in Bronyky, Ukraine, where he had just had two of his toes amputated from a burn suffered at his home before the invasion. With air raid sirens blaring, he was forced to go down four floors to hide in the hospital basement.
“I thought he would not live and I didn’t think I would see him again,” said Gargano, 32.
Svitlana Gargano talks about her father Leonid Los, a Ukrainian refugee, who is receiving physical therapy at Park Avenue Extended Care Center in Long Beach on Tuesday. Credit: Kendall Rodriguez
With their home destroyed, Los and his son Valerii, 35, went to Warsaw. After the United States announced last month they would begin accepting 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, they started a worldwide journey through Germany, Spain, Mexico City, Tijuana and eventually Los Angeles before he flew to New York.
In Freeport, on April 4, he was reunited with his daughter, whom he had not seen for six years, her husband Andrew, their son, Edgar, 5. and family members who had gone ahead of him, including his wife, Valentyna, daughter-in-law Olga, and grandson Lubomir, 3.
“I’m glad he’s here and I thank God every day," Gargano said. "He’s very present and I’m so happy for this.”
Los stayed with his daughter and her husband for a week before he went to Mount Sinai South Nassau for surgery on his right foot to have the rest of his toes amputated. He was transferred April 20 to the Park Avenue Extended Care Center in Long Beach, where they are treating him free of charge.
“My heart is at home. I miss my home,” Los said in Russian, translated by nurse supervisor Sviatlana Quick. “As the Russian invasion started, everything changed. Our lives changed dramatically … my family is where I am. Where my family is, is my home.”
Leonid Los,right, a Ukrainian refugee, does physical therapy at Park Avenue Extended Care Center in Long Beach, New York, on Tuesday April 26, 2022. Credit: Kendall Rodriguez
Los worked as a nurse practitioner in Ukraine and was caring for his mother and younger brother. He was initially hospitalized after falling asleep and burning his foot on his chimney. As a diabetic, he didn't feel the burn and his foot suffered gangrene, leading to surgery on the second day of the war.
His daughter worried he would not receive the care he needed as he changed his dressings himself and feared he would not make it to safety. “I didn’t sleep for months. It wasn’t just my dad, it was my whole family. It was my mom there, my brother, my nephew, one I never saw before,” Gargano said.
Following the surgery, Los undergoes rehab exercises twice a day in Long Beach with the nursing staff, many of whom speak Russian and help him strengthen his legs on exercise equipment, bikes and stairs.
“We welcomed him with open arms and we’re trying to make life easier given everything he’s been though and the long road getting here,” Park Avenue Administrator Vicky Shaw said. “He’s got a positive attitude from what he’s been through that motivates him.”
Los is a former Soviet soldier, but said his view of America changed from what he was taught in the Soviet Union.
“They welcomed us nicely in Poland, but in America, I was pleased to see a true democracy. In Moscow, they said Americans were enemies, but I see they’re friendly here,” Los said.
“I don’t differentiate which language people speak, they’re all humans. It’s difficult to speak Russian given the latest events and the invasion.”
Los felt at home living with his entire family at the home of his daughter, who moved to New York five years ago, after immigrating to Miami from Ukraine. Gargano said that when her father arrived, she hugged him, crying.
“He’s a very happy man. Not a lot of people have this. When I look at him, he says, ‘I’m good right now, everything will be fine, I don’t need anything else,’” she said. “This man doesn’t look like he’s sick and has such a happy spirit and still full of energy. Even in the hospital, this man is very blessed.”
Los said once he is healed and released from the rehab, he will try to make a new life on Long Island.
“Whatever God’s will, I will stay with my family and find a job here,” Los said. “Back home everything is destroyed and I have nowhere to go. Time will tell, we’ll see. My goal is to get better and play with my grandkids.”
John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.
