Leaving the house to face an ordinary day and not returning for weeks … months. Then, finally, when the big day arrives, here is the awareness that nothing will ever be the same again: life has completely changed, habits irreversibly upset. What used to be everyday life suddenly becomes the unattainable. Ways out? One of the most beautiful and least traveled roads leads to the resilienceand it is exactly the one taken by Marco Dolfin, orthopedic doctor, Paralympic champion, wheelchair surgeon and father of twins. That’s right: Marco Dolfin, protagonist of the book written by his brother, sports journalist Alberto, entitled Iron Mark. Marco Dolfin’s wards: surgeon and swimmer, lost the use of his legs in 2011 following a motorcycle accident that fractured his T12 vertebra, but not his dreams: those remained intact. And have become an extraordinary reality.
The accident
He was on his way to work that 11 October 11 years ago, Marco Dolfin: he had recently specialized and – new husband – had just returned, with his wife Samanta, from their honeymoon. Early in the morning the emergency call arrives: he has to help a colleague in a difficult operation at theDon Bosco hospital in Turin, where he has been working for a few weeks. Until the end, he is undecided whether to take the car or the motorbike. The choice falls on the bike, because it is more agile in traffic and then there is an urgency, so there is no time to waste. That morning the young orthopedist will arrive at the hospital, but as a patient. The road accident leaves him in a wheelchair, overturning everything: perspectives, values, life. But he can’t put an end to a story that wants to keep being told. Thus began a long ordeal for Marco Dolfin with the risk, if with the certainty, of not being able to start operating again. Instead, thanks to a special wheelchair that allows him to “stand” next to the operating table, Marco Dolfin, 41 years old on August 6, Leone Doc, has resumed and continues to give his work, defining himself high tech doctor. In the meantime he has also become a Paralympic athlete and father of twins: Lorenzo and Mattia.
The fixed nail
During his hospitalization in the Spinal Unit, the young surgeon has a fixed nail, returning to the operating room: “I thought about what I wanted to continue doing in my life – says the Turin doctor -. Among these things there has always been work even if many, certainly for a good purpose, had advised me to give up and change specialties. Prosthetic surgery and major traumatology, in fact, require to operate standing and with an important stability in order to be able to exert the necessary strength during the operations “.
He is not discouraged: from the hospital bed he studies the stratagem to compensate for the absence of the use of his legs. “The determination and the knowledge of the existence of a surgeon from Rieti helped me, Paolo Anibaldiwho had had an accident before starting his studies in General Surgery, and then became a surgeon who also operates standing up (while Marco is the only orthopedist to do so, ndr) – her words – . I went to see him to understand the solution he had found and adapt it to my needs that require more mobility ”.
Objective achieved and Dolfin has started working again atSan Giovanni Bosco Hospital in Turin. ”That I recently left the hospital to move as a freelancer to Delma multi-specialty medical center di Andezeno, also in Turin ”, he tells Luce!
Doctor, what approach do you have with your patients, who see you operating from the top of your exoskeleton?
“It’s actually a modified power wheelchair (laughs, ndr) or verticalizable, which is raised putting me in a suitable position to be at the operating table. Thanks to a technician, I made the changes that allow me to get up on my own and, instead of maneuvering it with my hands – busy doing other things and with the need to remain absolutely sterile – I use a joystick operated by elbow. At the beginning I was having a lot of problems, more than me than the patients, perhaps: but now I don’t even pay much attention to it anymore. I have been working like this for ten years, the rumors are circulating enough and those who come to me know my story well and know that I am well capable of doing my job “.
Its specialization?
“The knee, I chose this anatomical district for a variety of reasons and also because, as a good sportsman, I know well the importance of having good knees“.
Speaking of sports, he did not lose his passion after the accident.
“On the contrary, for me it was a stimulus to move forward, to get back into the game: after losing the use of my legs I said to myself, let’s see what’s for me, what can I do now. Sport has always been an integral part of my life, both as a physical and mental outlet, and in terms of comparison with other athletes. I would not be able to stay without it for long “
The choice…?
“From swimming I moved on to Triathlon (winning GrandFinal of the national paratriathlon circuit last September 18 in Bari in the context of Bari Zerobarriere 2022, ndr) which is giving me great satisfaction “.
Tell the truth, after the last victory you are already thinking about the 2024 Olympics …
“It is actually a very noteworthy commitment, but… Lorenzo, one of my sons, asked me: ‘Dad, will you be able to qualify for Paris 2024?’ He said. You know, children can’t be disappointed (laughs again, ndr). Having asked him, I think I will do it “.
Yes, Dr. Dolfin, because you became the father of twins in 2014: how was it?
“Very difficult and exciting. We talked about it for a long time with my wife and then we made a beautiful decision, but one that was costing Samanta’s life. Fortunately, it all ended well and the children are now our greatest joy. A large part of my thoughts, of my projects, has shifted to them “.
What questions do your children ask you?
“They live in a world where peers ask about their different dad. But they are aware and calm. There is an episode, a moment that I will never forget: Lorenzo, he was less than a year old, he was looking at me and at a certain point he looked down at the wheelchair. I understood, I understood that he had seen something different. Children change everything, because you reach a balance with yourself and believe you have found a square, but they overturn everything and you are forced to find a new balance. Different. With my wife Samanta we tend to be very natural: Mattia and Lorenzo saw their dad only in a wheelchair, for them this is normal. When I returned from Dublin with the silver medal, the twins took it to kindergarten and showed it to their mates sitting in a circle. One of them said something like ‘But how did your dad win that he doesn’t move his legs?’. And Lorenzo candidly replied ‘My dad swims breaststroke, legs are not needed’ ”.
Do they play any sports too?
“Yes, and like me they are very competitive, you can see that it is a hereditary thing. I have always been active, since I was a child. And I continued to do it growing up, in the long years of university when, overwhelmed by books, sport had become a fundamental outlet. I played football, I swam, in the end I fell in love with a fun sport that no one knows and is called hit ballan adrenaline-pumping discipline that is a mixture of handball and ball punch ”.
But there is a sports performance first, and a sports performance later.
“I love too much to win, to excel: and this can be a problem. After the accident I knew that I would continue to do competitive activity, because I was aware that I would not be satisfied with participating: at the beginning it was hard, I took some scoppole, then I realized that swimming was the right way. And the results have arrived, in a constant balance between a job that continues to take me more and more, a family that has grown, daily training and travel to participate in competitions. The goal is to do another Paralympics, even if the opponents are starting to be twenty years younger than me and it is increasingly difficult. But, for sure, sport will always be part of my life: my life as a husband, father, surgeon, man “.
Doctor, honestly, have you ever asked yourself “why me”?
“At the beginning it is inevitable to ask yourself, in a year spent at the Spinal Unit I have been asked a thousand questions like this. Reasoning, thoughts that you do on your own, alone, that are not good for you: at a certain point you realize you need external help. Luckily I had them: my wife Samanta, who is still here, next to me with our two children, my family. At first it was not easy to go back to the operating room, to stand up for so long … The duration of an operation can vary from 2 to 4 hours, in cases of complex traumatology. Sport has once again helped me, making me stronger on a muscular level. I also have another ally: passion. It is she who makes me feel less fatigue. Today I do not see the accident as a fury of fate: it is something that happened, it changed my existence and I cannot change it in any way, it is true. But I still have the ability to find the best solution to adapt. You see, in bad luck, I was lucky not to suffer permanent damage to the arms and hands, fundamental for my profession. When you have lost something you learn to give immense value to what you have found. “