Physical Health Poland Project #47356

Rehabilitation center for 60 disabled in Poland

by Fundacja im. Doktora Piotra Janaszka PODAJ DALEJ/ Doctor Piotr Janaszek PAY IT FORWARD Foundation

Rehabilitation center for 60 disabled in Poland

Project Report | May 8, 2024
THE GENE OF INDEPENDENCE - Marcin

By Filip Sobieszek | Project Leader

PAY IT FORWARD - Marcin and his family

In today's report we are bringing you a story of Marcin who proves that the biggest achievement is not reaching material success or a fantastic career but simply becoming a father and husband. All in all, family is the most important thing in the world.

My bike was fast. I decided that the two cars in front of me were going too slow. I overtook them smoothly, but I didn't notice the mess on the side of the road after the renovation. My bike skidded. I stopped at a pole, with my body so bent that one of the women who saw me became hysterical.

I "passed" the military service and didn't know what to do next. It was 2004. There was no work in Michalinów near Konin where I lived and in the surrounding area. My mother found a job for me when she heard that I was considering joining the army professionally and going on a mission to Iraq, but it was in Germany. That's how I started breeding, selling and installing grass for stadiums. After the season, in Poland, I became a truck driver. One of the contractors had a daughter. There was a spark between us. Not for long. She was gone half a year after my accident.

I couldn't feel my legs. Only pain. Huge one. After I blew into a breathalyzer given to me by a policeman, they placed me on the stretcher and moved me from hospital to hospital. One was for "wound care", the other one for a CT scan. I was on the operating table at midnight. 7 hours after the accident. It was October 2008. I was 26 years old.

Is my spinal cord damaged or severed? I don't know. Once they had sewn up my punctured pleura and my ribs had healed, they finally fused my spine with titanium sheets. And since these sheets of metal emitted strange flashes during magnetic resonance imaging, the reading of the examination was not clear. All I know about the spinal cord is that it is damaged in the thoracic section.

“If it's God's will, you will be able to walk again”. Said the doctor when I asked him directly about it. I was disillusioned by a boy from the First Contact Group of the PAY IT FORWARD Foundation. He visited me in the hospital to tell me about the pros and cons of living in a wheelchair. And encourage me to participate in active rehabilitation classes.

It's impossible not to notice a new person in a wheelchair. I was "fished out" by basketball players who lived near Konin but were training in ódz. They invited me to join their team. I agreed. During the first training session, I was so weak that the coach and the club president transferred me from my wheelchair to a sports wheelchair. After a couple more sessions, they didn't have to.

I became involved with the PAY IT FORWARD Foundation. First as a charge. Then volunteer. However, the amount of the pension for a disabled person motivated me to work. I opened a motorcycle and car repair shop. It was difficult at first, then it became better. Unfortunately, one of the automotive concerns built a factory nearby. The employees left. I couldn't work in the workshop myself, so I closed it. I found a job in a medical store in Konin and worked there for 3 years. Then I started teaching others how to live in a wheelchair. Firstly, "in the field", then in training apartments. But still in the Foundation.

I'm married. Happily. And recently I "jumped" into a new "job". I've become a father. What else do I expect from life since Antos was born? I would like to build a house. The land and the project are already there. And plant a tree. Preferably a walnut so that it could give shade and tasty fruits to my loved ones.

My name is MARCIN.

I am a salesperson and independent living coach.

I am a quadriplegic.

I am an INDEPENDENT PERSON.

PAY IT FORWARD - Marcin and his family

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Apr 23, 2024
"In tilt" - the story of Miroslaw, multiple Paralympic medalist.

By Filip Sobieszek | Project Leader

Apr 18, 2024
THE GENE OF INDEPENDENCE - Emilia

By Filip Sobieszek | Project Leader

PAY IT FORWARD - Emilia

"Mila, get yourself together, you'll never walk again." I've never heard that from doctors. I figured it out myself. This is the second vehicle that is important to me. The first one, a car, after a few flips with me inside, "crumpled" like a ball of paper. That's how I started my second life.

That year, I celebrated my 18th birthday and the new century.

It was June 28. I finished the 2nd grade of technical secondary school and got a seasonal job in nearby Mszczonów. That day, the roads were slippery and I was in a great hurry. At a bend, just 2 km from home, my car skidded and then landed on its roof. A random driver called for help.

They barely saved me.

Here's a summary of my injuries: broken - left scapula and left clavicle, as well as the entire facial part of my skull, as well as fragments of vertebrae sticking in my spinal cord. After the first stabilization surgery, I "slept" for a month. I woke up after two o'clock at night. In solitary confinement, with an endotracheal tube down my throat and several doctors above me. I couldn't move a finger, and no one told me that I would never walk again.

I cried for a long time and hoped that one day I would stand on my feet.

A colleague from the rehabilitation ward shook me. "Girl, come on, you won't get up from this wheelchair," he said brutally, looking at my murderous exercise regime.

“Mila, you have to go on living as best you can!”

That's what I was saying to myself every day. I was also running away from people who felt sorry for me. I wrote my final exams with a pen strapped to my wrist and I received my diploma as a freight forwarder technician. And then when I went to the first rugby training of the "Four Kings" team I found out about the PAY IT FORWARD Foundation.

"Mila, it will be difficult, but you can do it!"

That's what I thought after the first day in the foundation's training apartments designed for people with disabilities. I spent 4 months there. No shortcuts. I can't count all the attempts when I tried to get up from the ground into a wheelchair, put on a blouse and pants, fasten Velcro on shoes, put toothpaste on a toothbrush. But it didn't matter how many tries it took. The important thing was that I did that and many other activities myself.

Do you know what fun and pride it is?

Take the product from the store shelf by yourself and add it to your cart. Take your credit card out of your pocket and put it in the terminal. Make the pancakes yourself. It's a piece of cake for you. But do it with your hands in boxing gloves… Ha! And I can do it!

I'm planning the future, but not too far away.

Every day can change everything... For now, I have become a certified sports instructor for disabled people, I have started studies in neuropsychology and I live in Konin. Not alone... Love also came to me. And a new job. I returned to Osada Janaszkowo to teach others what I was taught. And this teaching is much more difficult. Each person is different. One needs 100 tries and the other 1000 to put on a sock by himself. They have one thing in common. The same sparks of joy in their eyes when they succeed. And that same look that silently says, "It's thanks to you."

My name is EMILIA

I am an independent living instructor. I have quadriplegia.

I am an INDEPENDENT PERSON.

PAY IT FORWARD - Emilia

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