Ante Kolunđija (21) fell off a motorcycle last year and broke a vertebra due to which he ended up in wheelchair. He didn’t feel his legs not even after several months spent in a rehabilitation center, but then…
Step away a little bit, let them see on pictures that you’re not holding me, that I walk without help – says Ante Kolunđija (21) from Dubrovnik to a physiotherapist in the Glavić Polyclinic in Zagreb, who together with a walker, carefully follows his steps.
A physiotherapist defines to what extent will the robot help Ante to move his legs, and to what extent will Ante move his legs by himself. Ante is very proud of his steps. After the accident on a motorcycle, that happened in June last year, he ended up in wheelchair and with not so optimistic prognosis about walking again…
Namely, because his vertebra got broken when falling off the motorcycle and a part of a bone damaged his spinal cord. Ante was urgently transferred to Zagreb, to a trauma clinic in Draškovićeva Street, where he was immediately operated. The doctors were pretty reserved when giving prognosis.
When I asked the doctor if I will ever be able to walk again, he didn’t give me a straight answer but rather said that he has seen some minor injuries after which people didn’t walk again, but also many heavier ones after which people did manage to walk again, so that much depends on me. And then, few days later another doctor that was treating another patient came to the room. I asked him about his opinion whether I will be able to walk again and he answered ”No, no way.” “Well you will see”, I thought to myself – laughs Ante.
He’s like that with us too. If we tell him that he still can’t do something, he gets all stubborn-says jokingly Mirna Golubić, a chief physiotherapist at the polyclinic, and adds that it is very important that people who have a spine injury start with the rehabilitation as soon as possible , while the chances for the recovery of the connections between the nerves are still high.
It is especially important with young people, like Ante, because this way the chances for the recovery are much higher – says Mirna Golubić.
Already in the rehabilitation center they’ve lifted me and leaned me on a walker, but here I’ve got to a point where I can get up and move my legs – says Ante. With persistent repeating of the movements, while getting help from robots to simulate walking, he came to do point of feeling every step he makes.
I can feel when I stand on my feet every time. The sense in my right leg came all the way to the calves, while in the left one, which is stronger, I have a sense all the way down to my ankles, says the boy and adds that after the accident he could feel his legs only in his thighs. He says that the therapy in the rehabilitation center was useful to him because he learned to be independent: how to transfer himself from the wheelchair to the bed, change his clothes, do some easier chores…
There I started my rehabilitation, but it wasn’t so intense and it was here that I came to the point of making some serious progress. It is an incredible feeling to realize that on the monitor I can keep track of to which point did the robot helped me to do the movements, and to which point I did it, and especially when I started to notice progress – says Ante. He adds that his parents are the proudest of him, they follow him on therapies in Zagreb, but also his childhood friends, who used to surprise him in the rehabilitation center and they continued to do so also in Polyclinic Glavić in Zagreb.
But I prefer being here than in Dubrovnik because there I would spend too much time with them, and here I am more focused on exercising – says Ante.
He also participated in two charity races. The last one was in Dubrovnik where Ante won hearts of all marathon runners present when at the end of the citizen’s race, that is a part of Du Motion, he crossed the finish line by walking on crutches. The second race was in Zadar where he “drove off” in the wheelchair across the finish line. The profit from this race was destined for the Foundation Wing for Life, that is engaged in researches about the spinal cord, and by participating Ante wanted to send a message that there is no giving up!
