Emil Johansson, 22, entered a closed outdoor pool in Västerås.
He dived from a height of 5 meters – straight onto a pool cover, and was paralyzed in almost his entire body.
– It was dark and it had rained and I was just going to take a quick dip, says Emil.
It was a summer evening exactly four years ago that Emil Johansson decided to enter a closed outdoor swimming pool in Västerås, without thinking about what the consequences might be. Something among others P4 Västmanland reported on.
Emil tells TV4 Nyheterna that he and his friends decided to enter the closed swimming area to swim at night. It was dark outside and it had been raining, Emil was the one who got in the fastest. He got onto the five-man trampoline, did a forward somersault and a dive – and landed on the pool cover. Emil’s friends were still in the parking lot outside when they heard the noise.
– They told me that it sounded like when you bounce a basketball, then they noticed that I didn’t come back, says Emil.
Emil had passed out and the friends had to pull him out of the pool, and then call 112.
“You will never be able to walk again”
He says that he felt at once when he hit the pool cover that something was really wrong.
– I have done a lot of extreme sports in the past so I have injured myself before. But this felt completely different, he says.
For a month, Emil was sedated and he remained in the hospital for a total of nine months. When he woke up, the hospital staff told him that he would never be able to walk again. But even then Emil seems to have been completely determined to get back.
– Just wait, I said to the hospital staff. Since then, I have carried on with the training and set several goals in life, says Emil.
Will drive his own car
And things have certainly happened since the accident. Emil tells how from the beginning he couldn’t roll his wheelchair by himself, his arms barely worked. Since then, in addition to training, he has also undergone several operations. He explains that he couldn’t move his fingers at all before, but now shows how he can move them a little.
One of Emil’s biggest dreams has been to be able to drive his own car again, and that will come true, very soon. He has been doing exercises during his training with movements to be able to drive. At first he couldn’t steer the wheel at all and couldn’t accelerate, but he told himself that “it has to go”.
And now the day you’ve been waiting for has arrived, because right after the interview, Emil is going to test drive his car.
– I fight every day and try to be as good as possible. I have been waiting for this day, says Emil.