Against all odds - Why endurance is a worthy challenge
The Power of Endurance: Transforming Challenge Into Triumph
Endurance is an attribute often tested in the face of adversity. We've all faced various challenges, but some are more difficult than others. Imagine being told that your physical health was permanently impaired and that your dreams were now redundant. The joy of seemingly routine activities, such as going to work or performing daily mundane tasks, taken away from you. An insurmountable challenge, you may think. But in the power of endurance, we often unlock our greatest potential. This is the story of one such individual, whose determination lead to an incredible transformation.
Setting the Scene: An Unexpected Challenge
At thirteen, life was dramatically altered. After being on the receiving end of a calamitous accident involving a truck, an immediate yet incomplete paralysis was suffered, predominantly affecting the left side of the body. The aftermath was a battle with spasticity, a stubborn condition that only worsened with time, eventually leading to a wheelchair-bound existence. However, with an enduring spirit, school was completed, a new city was explored, and the wonders of physics were delved into at university. This was all against the backdrop of a gruelling legal dispute with an insurance company, which further complicated matters.
One significant setback was a developed scoliosis. With the muscles being twisted out of shape, controlling the body became a significant challenge. It culminated in having to resort to an electric wheelchair as an essential mobility aid, along with potent painkillers to manage the mundane reality of severe pain. Consequently, intensive work on a dream Ph.D. project had to be abandoned. Still, quitting was not an option!
Striving for Independence: The Search for Solutions
Never yielding to adversity, the bitter circumstances were confronted head on. An exhaustive research period commenced, diving into understanding the medical intricacies, learning about vectorial treatments, examining studies and medical research papers. Even developing a resolution, involving surgery to cut away the muscles disagreed by spasticity, was carried out single-handedly. This was an endeavour unorthodox and uphill, given the medical community's stance that there existed only one feasible solution.
A yearlong expanse was dedicated to engaging various doctors to pitch the homemade surgery solution and garner acceptance. The determination bore fruit, the operation was life-changing, giving back a bit of control over the body. Finally, a degree of independence clocked in as a ray of hope.
Leveraging this newfound control, the path of recovery and improvement was taken by the horns. An intensive daily workout became part of the routine, enhancing core stability, flexing the atrophied muscles back to life and slowly, moving away from the tyranny of painkillers. Now it was time to find work.
Finding Employment: An Unconventional Journey
The trials of finding an employer willing to accommodate special circumstances, especially within the confines of a specifically wheelchair-accessible infrastructure, was an uphill task. After an arduous search, an opportunity materialised in the form of an internship, albeit in an inaccessible building with a nonfunctional elevator.
Despite the hurdles that required innovatively crawling up stairs and having a reserved wheelchair on each level, the enduring spirit thrived. Six months paved the way for a more suitable job opportunity. The persistence paid off!
Pushing the Boundaries: Walking Once Again
The journey didn't end there, though. For the left leg, a state-of-the-art orthosis was discovered, which significantly improved mobility, as demonstrated in this video. Effort was poured into relearning to walk first with a walker, then with crutches, regaining independence bit by bit. Not one to be deterred easily, the rehabilitation process continued in the United States, where with all the available resources, the first steps were taken towards walking independently.
The Ultimate Victory
One remarkable triumph was cycling again, 25 years after the life-altering accident. A testament that sometimes, the only thing preventing progress is the notion of impossibility that we construct in our minds.
An enthralling journey of fighting against odds, enduring challenges and rising above all, guaranteeing that life's potential can be realised and dreams can be pursued. Each goal in sight is valid, regardless of the challenges and setbacks that may arise. The key is to hold on, fight, and persevere.
Have you been inspired, or have questions about this journey? Drop them in the comments section below. Your input is appreciated!
Video Transcription
This talk is about endurance and why endurance is a worthy challenge. And um by sharing my story, I would like to um inspire you to hold on to a goal even if it's really hard at some times. And it might seem to be impossible.It can be worth it to, to fight for it and to never give up. And I also would like to raise awareness um for the challenges that people with a handicap still face um in their lives. So when I was uh 13 years old, I was on the way back home with my bicycle and I was run over by a truck. And besides uh quite a few severe injuries, the accident left me paralyzed, incomplete and especially the left side of my body was um affected. I developed a spasticity that got worse um every year and at some situation, it got so bad that I needed to and needed to use a wheelchair. And um yeah, to get along, I still um could uh finish my school. And I was um moving to a different city and I was studying physics and enjoying um the life at university. But uh in the same time the insurance company reduced and later they stopped the treatment. And so, uh, they started a legal dispute, uh, for many years.
And, uh, yeah, the situation got worse all the time. Let me just check for a second to check if everything is. Yeah, seems to be ok. Um, sorry, so 15 years after my accident I had a scoliosis of 90 degrees. That means the, it was, it was curled to the left. Um, it wasn't the spine being stiff, but the muscles um were twisted in that direction. And at some point I wasn't able to lift my arms anymore. I wasn't able to um use my wheelchair with my arm. So I needed electric supply. I had trouble um to live alone and to care for myself. Um I needed lots of medication, especially painkillers. And at some point I had to give up my job and I was working on my phd thesis at that time in theoretical Astrophysics, which was a dream for me. But with all the medication and in the severe situation I had, I couldn't make it anymore. So, um, I, I felt already like I lost almost everything and the doctors told me the only possible treatment for my situation would be a spinal stiffening for the whole back and an implant of a medical pump that would weaken my muscles, but this would also say weaken my brain.
It would make me feel tired and exhausted all the time. So I could absolutely not imagine to go for this suggestion and to go for that surgery at that point. So my goals were, um, to somehow regain independence to save my back with some other treatment. And, um, being able to work again for the next three years, I was working on the first two goals and I, I was on a rehab program. I was in a hospital for a while because I couldn't manage my daily life anymore. And I learned to, to get along, I literally learned how to put on my clothes, how to cook, how to eat with not being able to lift my arms. So fortunately, I was always good in finding solutions for technical problems. So I got along pretty good actually, after a while and I was um I could go back home. I was still able to live by myself and be more or less independent. And then I started to do a lot of research about treatments for spasticity. I learned anatomy. I learned medical expressions to be able to read um studies and medical papers. I learned about treatments for specificity with other medication or um surgeries. I went through everything I could find on the internet and I found a technique where one can cut muscles away. It sounds a bit cruel, but spasticity would stay, but it couldn't act anymore. So I figured out which muscles I would need to get rid of say so, um, that I don't have further problems but that I have the possibility to, um, control my body again.
So I worked out the surgery by myself and then I was searching for a doctor to do that surgery against the protocol because they were convinced that there is only this one solution. It took me a while to convince somebody, but at some point it worked out fortunately and the surgery was really life changing for me. It was a great relief. I started to have control over my body again. And, um, for the first time, this severe cramps, the spasticity was uh relaxed a bit more. There is still spasticity left over, but the the worst muscles were, were stopped, say in short. So I have new challenges. I started my intense workout with all the muscles that I couldn't use for so many years. And um I did my trainings every day. I could increase my core stability. I, at some point I could sit without support and I started to be able to lift my arms again. And um, yeah, be more and more flexible. And at some point I was healthy enough. Um, also I could reduce my painkillers actually, after a while, I was free of painkillers and I'm still free of all these painkillers, which is a great relief. It makes you, um, the brain feels so much more free to think.
And yeah, it's just a relief to be to get rid of it. And then I started searching for a job. Um, so I had to find an employer who was willing to hire a person with a handicap and who had a wheelchair accessible office or building both is difficult to find in Germany. It, it really is. Um, so I was searching for a long time and couldn't find a job. So, um, um, in a way one can understand if someone is, um, wasn't able to work for several years. It is, it is a bit challenging to offer that person a job, but it's really, it didn't work out. So I decided at some point that I'm going to apply for an internship first. So, um, it took me a while even to find an internship, but I found one, the job sounded interesting. It wasn't too challenging, but still interesting. And, um, but the building and the offices were not wheelchair accessible, they had an elevator but they were not, it, it was out of work and they somehow they didn't, I don't know, they couldn't bring it back to work.
So, as this was the only chance I had, I, and I was really so willing to be able to work again. I went for this internship and I got help every morning to enter the building. So someone came outside after a phone call and was carrying my wheelchair inside and I was crawling the stairs up to the office and then I, uh, placed a second wheelchair which I had, I, I brought to work and I placed it in the basement. So I had on every level, a wheelchair and I could, uh, crawl the stairs up and down to get to the basement to do my experiments and to go back upstairs and to the office to do the evaluations. So it does sound weird a bit. But, um, I'm still happy that I had that chance and that it's that I, I went for it and that everything worked out pretty good. And so I would say it was worth it. I spent six months in that company and afterwards I found a job. So it was just one job that I found and I was fortunate, it was an interesting one. So um still up until today, I never really have the choice with um with my handicap, there is still not many companies who would hire me. But um yeah, there's always at least something I can do. So I found this job. I was really happy to be back at work and um then I still continued uh doing workouts all the time. So um I was able to use my right leg again.
My right leg is affected by the paralysis a little bit, but by far, not as much as the left one. So I was training a lot. I spent a lot of time in building up some, some muscle strength. I started to learn uh to walk. That means I had a walker. I, I um with that walker, I could get up, I couldn't put all the weight on one leg, but it got more and more. And then I found an amazing high tech orthosis by oak for my left leg. Um because up to that point, I could walk on one leg and the other one was just um sliding next to me. I would say I, I neglected it or didn't use it. So, and with this orthosis, um it would um lock the knee while I'm standing on it. And then there are sensors, they can feel when I make a step and they, they, they loosen the, the, it, it loosens the knee and the, the leg can swing forward and then the knee is locked again for me to make the next step. So it's really, it's life changing to use an orthosis like that because even without feeling my leg and without having function or very little function in my left leg, I'm really able to, to walk around and I did research on, on rehab possibilities.
I went to the US for three years and all my, I spent all my vacation over there because it was the best place I could find um to learn to walk again. And so after 15 years, I was finally able to not only use a walker but to walk around with uh crutches, which gives me so much independence also for, for longer distances. And yeah, and as you can't see me at all in this or just my face in this conference and I would like to share with you the, the progress. And um so yeah, to show you that it's worth to go on and to go on and all the time to go on, I would like to show you a video of mine. Um Obo was um I had a Cooper operation with Obo and they made a lifestyle video which presents the osis and also the Yeah, how much is worth it is worth to have this, this orthosis, how much, how very very helpful it is for handicapped people to have um and an orthosis like that.
So I will real quick, I will switch to youtube and show you this video. Hand
other times there could be something along the lines of nevertheless, because they're just doing whatever I think is possible, even if everyone around me is saying it's impossible in my situation. It, I'm a physicist and I currently work in medical development at a software company.
I was run over by a cement mixer when I was 13 years old. That's one of the issues that left me with this incomplete paraplegic which affects the left side of my body. In particular, I was in a wheelchair for almost 15 years and then I had a big operation to reduce this v after that, I was able to start doing a ton of training to get back on my feet. Quite literally. Now that I no longer need the wheelchair all the time. And I have phos on my left leg, I can go on much bigger outings. I can get out in the forest and love it. I was able to ride a bike again for the first time in 25 years. I really enjoyed it when someone says to me that something is impossible with a wheelchair or the orthosis because the path is too difficult and no one has done it before. I think it over and if I can find a solution, I just go out and do it.
Ok. So, um thank you very much for listening to my story and I hope it was um it can encourage you a little bit to hold on to a goal and to fight for it. If you have questions, I will, I can answer them. You could just put them in the chat if you like to. Thank you.