It was four o’clock in the morning and Alexander Bekasov was driving home from work in Odessa, Ukraine.
He was shocked to see a little boy on the street all alone. And the situation turned out to be much worse than he ever could have imagined.
Alexander rolled down his car window and asked the boy, who couldn’t have been more than three years old, what he was doing out there.
When he didn’t get a response, Alexander got out of his car and went over to the boy. And it was only then that he saw how bad the situation really was.
The boy was covered with bruises and scratches and had a bloody cloth covering his forehead.
Alexander immediately called the police. And even when the police arrived on the scene, they were only able to get the boy to say one word.
The boy told the police that his name was Vova (short for Vladimir).
The police took the little boy straight to the hospital.
The boy was cold and exhausted, and when the doctors removed the bloody cloth from his head, they saw a large wound that looked like someone had tried to cut a large chunk from his forehead.
The doctors tried to get him to talk, but he still wouldn’t utter a word.
They assumed that Vova had been abused and tried to get him to tell them what had happened. But the boy couldn’t remember anything–not even his mother’s name.
Vova could play and feed himself, so he probably had grown up in a family, but his memories seemed to have been suppressed or wiped out.
His story quickly spread in the media and lots of people donated money for his hospital bills and also gave him clothes, toys, and diapers.
TV news programs in both Russia and Ukrainian investigated the boy’s past, but they came up empty.
Vova was neither registered as missing or listed on any database.
After four months, the hospital released Vova and handed over him over to the authorities, who put him up for adoption.
Eight families expressed interest in the boy and after a lengthy process, one of them adopted him.
In consultation with psychologists, Vova’s new family decided to keep his identity secret so he can escape further media coverage, recover from the trauma he’s been through, and get to know his new family.
The police are continuing to investigate what happened to Vova. Meanwhile, the boy is said to be enjoying life with his new family.
I hope Vova lives a happy life from now on and is enjoying life with his new family.
Every child deserves to grow up with love and consideration. Share if you agree.
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