Jordan Lima welcomes us to his apartment in Luxembourg City. The 24-year-old is currently sharing his home with his mother, who traveled from Portugal to look after him. He still needs a walking aid to lean on, but the fact that he can greet us standing borders on a small miracle. Because exactly two years ago to the day, on January 6, 2019, the young man’s life was turned upside down. He was with friends on the Cape Verde Islands on vacation. During a swimming trip he jumped into the sea and was badly injured. “I ran up and dived headfirst, but the water receded and my face hit the ground,” recalls Jordan. He quickly noticed the spread of numbness and blood in his mouth – his cervical vertebrae were broken.
Jordan was taken to hospital by ambulance, his condition requires emergency surgery. When news of the accident broke out in Luxembourg, many wanted to help. Relatives of the young man ask for assistance in his repatriation. Initially, help is withheld for administrative reasons until the Caisse Médico-Complémentaire Mutualiste (CMCM), which is issued by The essential learns of the incident, provides 40,000 euros to help him. A French rescue plane brings him back to the Grand Duchy, where he will spend ten days in the intensive care unit of the Zitha Clinic. Then he comes to the rehabilitation center, from which he was only released a few days ago after «one year and eleven months of intensive therapy».
“I asked myself a lot of questions”
Even if he finds it difficult to stand on his feet without help or to put on his socks today, the football fan does everything in his power to regain his strength. “Sometimes it was difficult, I asked myself a lot of questions, but I am naturally a positive person,” he says. He remembers the accident, the moment when only his arms moved a little and he could not yet use the wheelchair: «My whole body was asleep. I had to learn everything from scratch, in rehab I was like a baby. ” Jordan still has to go to the hospital four half days a week. He learned a lot from the stroke of fate that befell the young man at the age of 22.
«In the hospital I saw people who were much worse off than me. That changed my view of my life and many things, ”he says. There is still a long way to go back to a “normal life”, and Jordan takes his time with it – work, car, sport, everything in its own time. Two years after the accident, he would like to take the opportunity to thank the CNCM, the carers and everyone who helped him through the ordeal. “The Luxembourgers saved my life,” he says, while looking for his mother’s gaze.
(Nicolas Chauty / The essential)
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