Was paralyzed in snowboard accident – inspires others in giant amounts
The insight really landed three weeks after the accident. Sebastian Forsén sat alone in a hospital room and tried to move his legs.
It was not possible.
– Then I felt it was going to be like this. It was damn hard, he says.
– Then I sat and laughed for several hours.
At the same time it was Maybe also there as the journey back to life began.
– I got together. It became like « what should I do? ». It is this position I am in.
– I started training at the hospital, which was lucky I still had a good function in my arms and I didn’t have much pain either.
– So I got started pretty quickly. It helped to exercise too, that may not have to think about the injury itself.
He grew up In various ski slopes, hooked on the snowboard boom in the 1990s, « the first board at B&W » had it with it to school and spent afternoons and evenings building jumps and wear tricks in the small slopes around Stockholm.
The accident occurred during Easter 2003 in Åre. A backwards went completely wrong, Sebastian Forsén gained too much speed, tried to stop the rotation in the air but landed on his back with a hard bang.
19 years old broke He back and injured the spinal cord. Sebastian Forsén was paralyzed from the hip down – but gradually he went back to an active life.
Meeting others in the same seat was important.
– It caused people to open their eyes to people who lived their usual lives and sat in a wheelchair. It sat in the head, to see that people can.
Today it is he himself who inspires others.
Since the accident has Sebastian Forsén « Road Tripped » in the United States, been a seat basketball professional in Italy, volunteered at a rehab center in Mexico and-perhaps most importantly-returned to snow and backs by learning how to go Sit-ski.
Today he is a new dad, works as a rehab instructor and meets people with spinal cord injuries daily. In addition, he runs with business partner Robin Rydén the travel company Welltrips, which organizes customized trips for people with functional variations.
Do you feel like a role model?
– Yes, somehow I probably do. I also notice it when I meet old patients and even participants on our travels … Some say « If I hadn’t met you, I probably wouldn’t have come this far ».
How’s it?
– It’s very wonderful. And that’s also why I’m doing this. You feel that you fulfill a function, that you have a meaning with your existence.
Just travel has Meaning « everything », continues Sebastian Forsén.
When we see you at Årstaviken in Stockholm, he has just returned from a group trip in Stubai in the Austrian Alps.
Colleague Robin Rydén, with the interview, he met by chance more than ten years ago. The duo’s goal is to get people to overcome worry.
– The coolest is almost the response afterwards, says Robin Rydén, taking an example from reality:
– We have customers who had never thought that they would be allowed to sit among vines and look out over the sea. Once they do, then they can say « this is actually good ».
It’s their business Who supports and markets Wings for Life World Run, a charity race that starts exactly at 13 – worldwide, regardless of time zone – Sunday, May 4. Last year, a record number of 265,818 people rolled or ran the race, in specific places or anywhere via an app.
No finish line exists. Instead, the participants are chased by a « Catcher Car » (companion car), physical or virtual, which starts half an hour after the participants and slowly increases its speed. When it is caught, the race is over, whether it has been five kilometers or 70.
– It will be very spectacular, says Sebastian Forsén, who will participate in Djurgården in Stockholm.
– And it’s so easy to participate, for everyone.
The participation fees go in full for research on spinal cord injuries.
It is needed, Forsén continues.
– It is sometimes a bit neglected, and it is also so complex with nerve damage.
– About 300 people in Sweden get a spinal cord injury every year. It is not very much, but it is something that is with an for the rest of life.
Attention and money can help research forward, he continues.
– With the help of proper care, you can see today that there are more people who still maintain some functions. But then you would obviously want to find a solution, to be able to get back features and get nerves to heal again.
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