PBF Speaker
Program: Youth/Aqua
Mark was 14 years old and had special dispensation to leave school, and get a job.
He came home one afternoon after work, and asked his Mum how long he had before dinner was ready. She told him 10 minutes, so Mark decided to go for a quick swim in their pool.
He jumped in, feet first, with his legs together, but his feet hit the bottom of the pool.
The reverberations from hitting the pool floor crushed the vertebrae and spinal cord in Mark’s neck. His brother called for help, and his mother and a neighbour were able to get him out of the pool and call an ambulance. Mark had been injured at the C4-C5 vertebrae, meaning he is now living with quadriplegia.