Photo on the left – me, a couple of weeks before the injury. Photo on the right – me, a year later. Yes, it’s really me.
Never dive into the ponds, which depth and bottom "architecture" you do not know. Never, you hear me, never do like I did! Having dived 10 years ago, on the 1st of July year 2007, I broke my cervical spine. Trauma of the spinal cord due to cervical spine fracture (C-5). The reason was banal – I’ve dived where I shouldn’t … The result - a paralysis of 80% of the body below the neck: arms, legs, back ... Thus I took away father from son, husband from wife, son from parents, and reliable friend from my friends. At age 31, I turned my life into a nightmare, and what is most important - I broke lives of my closest people.
There were three more divers with me in a hospital ward. One of them nearly recovered – walking barely. Another one died two weeks later. Two of us are wheelchair-bound for ... for a long time. And I admit, I still often envy the guy who died ... I must say, from the four of us, only one dived being drunk. As usual, he had the slightest spinal cord injury. So it's wrong to think that only drunk people break their necks.
No help and sympathy is required. The purpose of this post is to show what can happen if you forget about behavioral safety.
Want to have a wheelchair and a pension from an early age? Then do what I did, dive to the bottom! European doctors call such cases "Russian disease", because we are leading in this type of trauma. Every year I write about that everywhere I can. But the number of the divers does not decrease. But I hope that you, when go swimming, think of me! Take care of yourself and people you love.
PS: Remember the movie “1+1” («Untouchables»)? The moment where Philippe meets his brother is the most important for me because of the dialogue in which they are talking about Driss:
Friends, I'm fine! Fine, as much as it is possible in my situation. I have a wonderful family - wife Olga and son Arthur. There are many loyal and caring friends around me. Actually no one disappeared from my life because of my trauma.
My life is not that boring. I am able to find hobby for soul and body, and do something to earn the living. I go to concerts in Kostroma and Moscow. Sometimes I go to the sea. During summertime we spend all weekend at the dacha with friends. People I know often visit me.
Yes, I could do more without a wheelchair and my life could be more colorful. But why talk about all these “coulds” and “ifs”, I have more than some healthy people have! And ...
In some sense, the wheelchair has changed me for the better ...
