The life of 27-year-old Jordy van den Enden from Lepelstraat is completely upside down since last summer. When he was on holiday with friends in the Greek Rhodes, he made a dip in the pool and ended up on his neck ugly. Now, nine months and two operations further, he has a paraplegia at home and he focuses on rehabilitation full -time.
“I was so angry with myself,” says Jordy, gets rid of the physiotherapist again. “Because of the accident I broke my neck and I immediately had to go to the hospital in Rhodes with the ambulance. There they had too little knowledge and so I flew to the hospital in Athens with my best friend.”
Jordy was operated on urgently. “When I woke up, it seemed to be going well. But when I had 42 degrees fever in that night, my best friend happily raised the alarm,” he says. “Then I was in a coma for eleven days.” The 27-year-old himself knows nothing about that.
“There is fear for my life.”
“Then there is fear for my life,” Jordy continues. “My family had now flown over and thought: that’s going, it’s ready. I also saw a leek.” After almost two weeks of coma, Jordy woke up anyway and was flown to the Netherlands.
“I had to undergo another operation there, because the first did not go well.” Now the life of the twenties suddenly looks very different. “I weighed 80 kilos and was sporty. But three weeks after the accident I only weighed 60.”
“Since then I have not been home either. I am now in a rehabilitation center in Utrecht. Furthermore, I had just brought my master at the university, wanted to live with my girlfriend and so I just had my life on the ride. Then you go on holiday with your friends and you get this.”
“I have to operate computer with my eyes.”
Jordy works at an IT company in Oosterhout. “Fortunately, I can work again at my office job. Although a special computer has to be made for me that I can operate with my mouth, eyes or speech. I am in an electric wheelchair and cannot move my arms and hands.”
Furthermore, Jordy must now live adapted. “I need help with everything, even if I have itching, someone else has to scratch. I can only talk.
“With me the glass is always half full.”
Despite his limitations, Jordy is positive in life and he wants to get everything out of it. “With me the glass is always half full.” So he focuses on his recovery through intensive therapies. The costs for this are not fully reimbursed. To help with this, he started a collection campaign. This has already raised more than € 45,000 euros on Monday afternoon.
“My situation is of course terrible,” says Jordy. But by nature I am a positive person. Furthermore, I never feel alone, because I have a lot of support for my parents, friends and dear friend. “
“For example, I have a van with which my friends pick me up. At home my brother has made a ramp so that I can enter the house with my wheelchair. And my parents help me go to bed, that sometimes takes two hours.”
The twenties now focus on rehabilitation, but hopes to be able to work again in the future. “It will no longer be forty hours, but I really want to feel useful again and contribute to society. Hopefully that can be done soon,” says Jordy Hoopvol.