Karoliina Halme survived like a miracle in a drop of fifteen meters. He encourages new players to join the sport as the paramedic team has tough goals.
Injured in a cable car accident as a teenager Karoliina Halme is one of the regular players of the Finnish national volleyball team. Halme, 26, representing the TSI Tampere club, has worn the Finnish uniform seventy times, with the best merit being the fourth place in the European Championships.
Halme’s path to volleyball was different, as he had not practiced the sport before his injury. Halmeen was attracted by an experienced sit-down volleyball team player who had read a high school-age Halme blog.
– Although learning the technical side of volleyball was challenging, the sport took off quickly, Halme says in an interview with STT.
However, Halme hopes to talk about paralyzing and not sitting volleyball.
– The game is anything but sitting. There is a lot of movement on the field, even if the game doesn’t take place while standing, Halme reminds.
Halme, who now works as an radiologist, hopes that the new players will join the volleyball. The Paramaa team needs extra strength, and the goals are to win a medal and survive the Paralympics.
– At least there is enough training, because in addition to my club team, I train in Kotka in the KSI team, which consists mainly of men, Halme says.
Salvation from a small stick
However, let’s go back in time. Before coming to the national team patterns, Halme faced a severe blow in the summer of 2013. Halme, who had grown up at the large children’s camp in Pieksämäki, decided to test the cable car.
– I was attached to a safety rope and set off. Soon there was a metal squeak when the wire broke, and I realized I was falling. I just had time to think that I wish I wasn’t paralyzed, Halme says.
After collapsing on the ground, Halme instinctively sat up, for she was conscious of the miracle.
– The first feeling was relief, I was not paralyzed. At the same time, I noticed that the toes of my right foot were swaying up at the knee. The leg was across the leg, and attached only to the skin and a few strands of muscle.
The left leg was also badly damaged, but not as severely as the right.
– The pain in his right leg was the worst. It felt like the leg was in the incinerator, Halme times.
High school was interrupted for more than a year
The distance of falling into the halme was later measured to be fifteen meters.
– It is an incomprehensible happiness that I fell into a soft forest just the size of me. Right next door was a big rock and a huge stump, meaning the breath was really small.
He had to wait for more than an hour for the rescue personnel to arrive, as the place of the fall was on the island. When the aid arrived, the direction took him to the hospital for emergency surgery.
– I also got sepsis. Because my leg had a fragmented open fracture, bacteria had entered the wound in the woods. The feet were first washed with a pressure washer, Halme says.
Halme was afraid for her leg, as she was an actively athletic and mobile young man. Fortunately, amputation was avoided.
– Muscle transplants and blood vessels were made in the leg, in addition to which the ankle was stiffened. It is a masterpiece of doctors. I also got several fractures on my other leg and a hair fracture in my spine when I fell.
Recovery became a long process, and freezing pains followed Halme for a year. He was unable to walk and had to interrupt high school.
The harsh time turned for the better when the leg was cut again a year later due to death.
– My life changed after that and I was able to finish high school. Even though the leg was stiffened more and more, I got rid of the worst pains, Halme says.