PORTRAIT

PORTRAIT OF HOPE AND ACTION

Singapore, March 2001

Three days after the accident, my body crying from the pain and my mind lost between the morphine dreams and the pa- ra- ple - gia nightmare, the voice of the nurse was loud and clear :

“You have to learn to suffer..."

"You have to face your future" she said...

I visited various hospitals and rehabilitation centers in various countries. I experienced a great variety of human behaviours within the medical world, ranging from cold indifference to great compassion. Besides the great support from family, friends and colleagues, I will always remember the doctor taking my hand. His hand reminded me that I was still alive. Some months later, an intern, after some not so great news, managed to convince me that it was worthwhile fighting and hoping… that progress towards curing spinal cord injury was huge...



In the meantime, I have learned to live with my new body and realized that happiness lies in what you are rather than in what you have. Every day I enjoy being able to live an independent life, being able to travel and discover, being able to feel. Not all of us have been that lucky, though. For those whose arms are lifeless also, to keep smiling is an even bigger challenge.

I met and spoke with patients from different parts of the world. All have something in common : the impression that the medical world has given up on them and the necessity to hide their hope always reborn. Why does it sound so normal and so acceptable for a doctor to announce to a patient that he /she will spend the rest of his/her life in a wheelchair ? Acceptance should not mean resignation. It’s high time the medical world, our politicians and society at large stopped accepting the unacceptable and gave patients the right to hope.

Oriental wisdom teaches us the following :
“ The humility to accept the things you cannot change”
“ The courage to change the things you can”
“ The wisdom to make the difference between those two”


Anybody who has the chance to do so is invited to contribute to our efforts to end paralysis now ! If you wish to support us in any way pls write to corinne4cure@gmail.com

Corinne Jeanmaire –
Paraplegic - Complete Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) T10/T12 , further to a car accident in March 2001, Indonesia.
French nationality ; Living and working in the Netherlands.