Cross-country skiing: Flora Dolci recounts her paragliding accident
On Sunday, Alpine cross-country skier Flora Dolci posted a message on her Instagram account in which she spoke out for the first time about her paragliding accident on 9 October, her 26th birthday.
“A minute’s haste cost me a return to the ground far too early. I can see myself falling and I know what’s going to happen. I have time to say to myself: “You’re going to pay dearly. I don’t panic. There’s no point in panicking when you can’t change what’s going to happen next. I hit the ground hard. I know it’s serious,” she writes. I look at my legs, they’re curled up underneath me and I can’t feel them. I can’t feel them any more.
She went on to explain that she had been quickly taken care of by the emergency services in Briançon (Hautes-Alpes).
Having changed position, the sensation in my legs came back,” she continues. My ankle’s as big as a potato and my back hurts, but strangely enough, I’m thinking that it’s going to be OK, that it’s maybe not as bad as all that. When the doctor comes back after seeing the images, he doesn’t look too good… He explains that it’s more serious than we thought. He’s surprised that I can move my legs because part of my fourth vertebra is in a part of my body that contains the nerves of the spinal cord.
“I’m keeping my smile and I’m still cracking life to the hilt!!!”
It was at this point that she was informed that she had to be evacuated to Grenoble (Isère) for emergency surgery.
The operation went well, so now it’s time to accept,” says a combative Flora Dolci. […] I want to be like a phoenix rising from the ashes. […] This winter, I won’t have any victories or successes on the skis, but these last few days, I’ve had victories every day: getting up, walking, being more independent for simple things. So I’m feeding off these little successes and I’m still smiling and enjoying life to the full!
