Marc Middelkoop (23) went to Sweden to ride marathons, but the skater from Culemborg crashed hard during the first marathon. So hard, in fact, that he ruptured his mild and ended up in intensive care.
Middelkoop didn’t know what hit him. From the moment he crashed hard in Lulea, he got on a roller coaster. ,,I don’t remember that fall very well,” he says. “It went so fast. My elbow probably ended up hard in my stomach, because after that I immediately felt pain in my stomach. I did finish the 60-kilometer race, but it wasn’t easy. When I got even more pain after the finish, the doctors immediately took me to the hospital.”
Tied up
In the Swedish hospital, the young skater was immediately tied up completely. He couldn’t move anymore, because the doctors feared more damage. “I thought that was exaggerated. Even my head was stuck. I couldn’t believe I was lying there and I was really pissed off. I just wanted to skate and now I was suddenly in hospital in a foreign country, where I didn’t know anyone and didn’t speak the language.”
There I lay with all those beeps and IVs around me. That was pretty scary
The CT scan revealed that he had a rupture in his spleen. He ended up in intensive care. “Pretty intense. For two days I was allowed nothing but to lie on my back. I was not allowed to move, eat or drink. Because if there were complications and my spleen started to bleed, they had to operate on me right away. There I lay with all those beeps and IVs around me. That was pretty scary. Fortunately, after two days I was allowed to get off it again and then I was allowed to eat and drink again.”
Middelkoop has now left the hospital and is back with his teammates. But skating in Sweden is not possible for the time being. He has to recover before that.
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