Håkan, 55, can leave – after 15 years in a wheelchair

It was a simple routine task

The brakes of a truck had to be replaced and the fork lifted. And suddenly, an oil pipeline burst and, just as far as Håkan Törnström

I met a clinician at the clinic where we were treating patients who were breaking their backs. The doctor said that I will never go again: "You are going to sit in a wheelchair life, I can say it," says Håkan Törnström of Fridlevstad, near Karlskrona.

– It was a disaster for me. It can not be imagined. I have just one thought: now I'm joking about that. I leave the shop, I'm dead.

Standing Up a Project

But the three-child card decided to to fight. Not because there were predictions that he could go back there.

– Because a dad in a wheelchair is still a dad.

Stand was a project in itself.

As part of physical education, Håkan was a so-called "sideboard". The patient is snuggled in a position to straighten the muscles.

From time to time, thought has grown to be able to defend oneself for one's own day. The doctors had already ruled out his chances.

But one small step at a time, Håkan sounded

– I left my upper body, it is intact. So when I was in the kitchen, I took the sink and I straightened up. I put my knees forward to not trill, he said.

– It was so cool to feel it. That I stood – almost without help. There, the jump was on if I could go there one day.

The Heroic Feeling

Håkan could only drive a car in a specially adapted vehicle that one year after the accident.

But he had the habit of taking someone away.

He was not able to do a banana thing as he could do it alone. He was still in a wheelchair.

Get out of the car, pick up the wheelchair and start, it's superstition – first

– You can imagine the heroic feeling when I thought about the car for the first time. I remember that I was more or less hanging in the tunic. The legs could not hold me alone.

– You can not understand so liberating that it was to ask for help.

Goes – after 15 years

Today, Håkan Törnström returns. Not impeccable and not entirely for his own machine.

He uses a crutch to emerge. At home, he moves almost unhindered without his walker.

– It's hard to understand that I've experienced this, he says.

– The feeling of being able to leave. It's indescribable, I do not know what to compare. It's as nice for me to stay up as to put yourself after a long walk.

A moment

Håkan Törnström is not able to do without any means or problem as stated goal. It's no longer as important, he thinks.

But he has the ability to push himself to break the boundaries.

– It seems crispy But I'm crazy for a long time. I am fine now.

– I took everything for granted. That "it is clear that it should be so". But nothing is obvious, you have to be humble and happy to live. Anything can happen to anyone.

– It can be fast. What are we talking about here? 1.5 seconds? One moment.