Sanitek Employee Has Leg Amputated after Being Hit by Car While on Duty

Volodya Achemyan, a 65-year-old member of a Sanitek Armenia garbage pickup crew who was hit by a car on Yerevan’s Baghramyan-Kievyan intersection in late March, had his leg amputated several days ago for gangrene, his daughter, Ruzanna Achemyan, said in a conversation with Epress.am.

“It seems that that his leg arteries got blocked after the first surgery, and the doctors had to remove the leg above the knee. At least, that’s what they tell us. At first, father felt very bad because of the loss of his leg, but now he has somewhat come to terms with it,” the daughter noted, adding that even after the amputation, doctors can not say with certainty whether Achmeyan will recover fully. “We are waiting for the test results, but I don’t like how father looks. I don’t think he’ll survive if the gangrene continues to spread higher within the next 10 days.”

According to Achemyan, there has been no help or visit from Sanitek representatives; “Father needed blood transfusions daily, and I did not have enough money. I called Sanitek and I told them that since they had previously done nothing for us, they could at least help me with 30 thousand drams. They, however, refused, saying that they had already transferred 1 800 000 drams to the insurance company. So we went to Rosgosstrakh, where we were told that they had not been transferred any money… Or they do not want to give it to us, I don’t know.”

Note, Sanitek has recently released yet another advertising video, in which the employees of the waste management company poetically boast about their “enjoyable” work: “I like cleaning up the city it is my own house,” the truck driver claims and adds. “My heart is the people and my job is the care about them.”

The video has received mostly positive feedback from Facebook users, who “hope that it was made by an Armenian director.” It has, however, also been the subject of criticism, with some users expressing skepticism at the night-shift driver’s poetic and delightful tone and others urging Sanitek to “come back to reality” and “remove the stupid video because no one is actually happy to do this work.”

In response, Sanitek has written; “Our company employs people with quite interesting personalities, who, in addition to their daily work, have interesting hobbies and sometimes even talents. The cleanliness of the city is preserved only because of their efforts. Thanks again for the comment.”