People say nothing will happen to you that you won’t be able to handle. My life changed dramatically on the 24th of January 2009 when I was only 16 years old. I was just crowned as the South-African ladies off-road quad bike champion when I had a nasty fall that left me paralyzed from the waist down. I broke T4 an T5, T7 collapsed less than a year ago from the injury. Doctors prepared me for the worst, they said I won’t ever have feeling or movement again, not even to talk about walking, in fact they wasn’t sure how I survived the accident.
When I got discharged I didn’t have any movement, although I got feeling back. In my position me and my family was prepared to try anything, I started to get water therapy at Thilde Victor biokinetics five days a week and even sometimes six days per week, in the beginning. When I started there I had to be lifted in and out of the pool with a sling, I was weak and had a lot of pain. The first miracle happened when I got movement back in my left toes, from there on slowly but surely I made improvement. We came at a point where I was strong enough and got enough muscle movement back to stand with callipers on my legs and ankles to keep me from collapsing in a steel frame, Thilde was even prepared to go with me to Pretoria to learn how to work with me and how to help me stand and sit down with all those gear on. The next big improvement I got was standing only with ankle callipers in my frame, from there on it went to standing with callipers and crutches. I train hard and Thilde is my driving force, without her and my family backing me I would sit at home the whole day and watch TV. It doesn’t matter what time it is or what my newest scheme is, Thilde is always prepared to listen and think of other ideas how we can try to do the task I want to do. I am very competitive and needed a sport, we live in Heidelberg so I can’t play wheelchair basketball or anything like that. But I started to swim and I’m proud to say now I am a competitive swimmer. Thilde learned me from the basics till the more improved techniques of competitive swimming, we tried everything until we found something that worked, otherwise we will keep trying till we find a solution for the problem I have. My coach will go out of her way to accommodate me and to be there to support me, from being just my biokineticist she became my friend.
I am now eighteen years old and proud to say in this last year and seven months I have truly lived. I can walk now with only ankle callipers and crutches, I climb in and out of the pool without any help. I go up to the gym that is on the second floor on my butt to train in the gym on Mondays. I am active and competitive. I give a lot of credit to this wonderful place that helped me to become more and more independent, God put them on my road for a reason, if it was the water therapy or the Lord that helped me proved all the doctors wrong we will never know, but one thing I do know is that I went there for a reason and I won’t look back a second.
My life changed in the blink of an eye, but I had the choice do I fight or do I feel sorry for myself. I chose to fight. January the 24th 2011 It will be two years since I was in the accident. I am still at Thilde Victor biokineticist three times a week, due to school I can’t go everyday. I see so many people come looking truly sick and bad, everyday I can see the improvement on them, soon after they started they make progress so fast that it’s not necessary to come anymore. I am part of the furniture everybody comes and goes but I stay. I will never stop training and leave therapy because it is the best exercise there is. Bad things do happen but you can make your life easier by getting treatment and walking away one day thinking “wow I actually feel great for a change, physically and mentally” this is how water therapy changed my life. – Merzaan Smit
