Story

In the second weekend of January 2023, I went skiing with some friendly colleagues on the Austrian slopes of the Zillertal Arena. On a sunny Saturday morning, I fell hard during a descent. I had hit an ice patch, which caused me to lose my balance and fly off the side of the slope. I fell about 10 meters and landed on a hard surface. Once in the snow, I realized I could no longer move my lower body. I tried to get up, but I couldn’t. In panic, I called my friendly colleagues, parents, and girlfriend, asking if a helicopter could please come…

After a flight of less than 18 minutes by helicopter, I arrived at the hospital in Innsbruck. I was operated on immediately. It turned out I had a shattered vertebra, which was replaced during surgery with a spinal fusion (a kind of bridge).

The doctor told my family that there was no chance of recovery: my lower body would remain paralyzed for the rest of my life. But when I woke up from my anesthesia the next morning, to my amazement, I felt some sensation in my legs! The spinal cord injury turned out to be incomplete, which meant recovery was indeed possible! But the question then, and still now, is how far will my recovery go?

In total, I spent two weeks in the hospital in Innsbruck. After that, I was transferred to the Radboud UMC in Nijmegen. There, I stayed for another two weeks until a bed became available for me at De Hoogstraat, a rehabilitation clinic in Utrecht.

Ultimately, I followed an intensive and inpatient rehabilitation process until the end of May, which is about three and a half months. Physiotherapy, occupational therapy, swimming lessons, social work, driving lessons, cooking classes… They even taught me how to dress myself independently.

Six weeks after the accident, there was movement in my left big toe. The beginning was there, and that gave me a lot of motivation. To this day, I train intensively – and make progress. Want to follow my recovery process? You can do so via my Instagram account @mennostreefland.

I can and am allowed to train day in and day out for my recovery. I am very aware that this is a huge privilege.
In the Netherlands, healthcare is so well organized, and that contributes to the recovery. I have already regained several functions in my lower body.
I am still far from where I hope and want to be, but we are on the right track. Thanks in part to your help and donations.

Unfortunately, there are many people for whom this is not the case. And of course, I would also want to recover 100% again.

To make this possible, but also to prevent more people from having to go through what happened to me, I started SPINES. I develop and sell back protectors for intensive sports like skiing and snowboarding, but also horseback riding and cycling. I have now gathered a small team around me so that together we can ensure that even more people go up the mountain safely.
Wearing a helmet is already very common among Dutch people, but a back protector is not yet.
We hope to change that by also raising more awareness. With every purchase, money is donated to spinal cord injury research.
Because, unfortunately, to this day, there is still no medicine or solution.

I can and am allowed to train day in and day out for my recovery. I am very aware that this is a huge privilege. Healthcare is so well organized in the Netherlands! I have already regained several functions in my lower body.

But there are plenty of people for whom that is not the case. And of course, I would also want to recover 100% again.

To make this possible, but also to prevent more people from having to go through what I have experienced, I started SPINES. I develop and sell back protectors for intensive sports like skiing and snowboarding, but also horseback riding and cycling. Wearing a helmet is already very common among the Dutch, but a back protector is not yet. I hope to change that by raising more awareness. And with every purchase, money is donated to spinal cord injury research. Because to this day, there is still no medicine or solution.