It was a day before Father’s Day and Devon Geurden from Den Bosch wanted to get a present. On the way to the center he was hit by a car on his motorcycle. He ended up a hundred meters further down the road. There were fears for his life. Devon survived the accident, but lost his left arm. Now, more than three years later, Devon is more positive than ever and even international football.
Devon (29) remembers nothing about the accident itself. He suffered an arterial hemorrhage and lost two and a half liters of blood. “Luckily there was a firefighter opposite where I was lying, who closed my artery with a piece of string. If I had lost a little more blood, I wouldn’t have been there anymore. That man saved my life.”
“Luckily my heart kept working.”
Devon was in a coma after the accident and it was unclear how he would recover. “My body had taken a huge blow, but fortunately my heart continued to work. They operated on me for twelve hours and tried to save my forearm and elbow. Ultimately that didn’t work and my parents agreed to an amputation.”
His parents were afraid of Devon’s reaction if he saw his amputated left arm. “But to this day I am happy with that quickly made choice. I did talk to a psychologist several times, but he couldn’t do anything for me because I was so positive about it. I never had a dip or a flashback.”
“The prosthesis stays in the cupboard.”
He had to recuperate for at least a year. Devon was given a prosthesis, but he only used it a few times. “In the beginning it was very confrontational and I saw people looking at my stump. But now I don’t even notice it anymore. That prosthesis stays in the closet, this is just who I am. I can do everything except tie my shoes and cut meat.”
His positive attitude ultimately brought him a lot. “I now have a great job as a sustainability advisor. And thanks to a tip from a colleague, I found a new passion. I read more about it on the internet and eventually I ended up with the Dutch amputee football team.”
“I shattered my ankle on the exact same road.”
Initially he wanted to participate as a football player. “I played football until I was 19, until I shattered my ankle in a scooter accident. Coincidentally on the same road as my motorcycle accident. But in the amputee team you are only allowed to play football if you have a leg amputation. I could take up goalkeeping, even though I had no experience in that. My father has always been a goalkeeper. I decided to take up the challenge.”
The national team trains in Utrecht every Sunday and during the week Devon sometimes goes to the training field with his father. “I’ve been goalkeeping for a year and a half now and it’s getting better and better. After the holidays I want to join a goalkeeper academy. We recently qualified for the 2024 European Championships. There we will meet top countries and we want to perform as well as possible as a team.”
Before every match he has to tape his stump to his body. “The referee checks that. I’m used to it and see football as a wonderful hobby that gives me energy. You travel all over the world, meet a lot of people and we can go to the European Championships next year. Hopefully even more people will become enthusiastic about this team, because we can certainly use some strength.”
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