"Bedridden for Life", He's Ready to Climb Mountains 6.5 Years Later

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 22 May 2019)


                                              Then...

Industrial climber Mehmet Şahin (34) fell while cleaning a slope in
Erzurum's İspir district after a rock hit his head and was hospitalized
in intensive care for months.  Şahin lost his ability to speak and to
walk.  But after 6.5 years of operations and rehabilitation, Şahın is
back on his feet and wants to climb mountains again.

Şahin, from Rize on the Black Sea, was cleaning the slope of a dam
construction site at İspir on 3 January 2013 when a rock above him
broke away and hit his head.  The helmet Şahin was wearing shattered
and he hung by his harness for 2.5 hours until help came. Şahin was
put in intensive care for 4.5 months.


                        ...and now.

Doctors said it would be very difficult for Şahin to walk again but
after a series of operations and years of rehabilitation at the Maçka
Ömer Burhanoğlu Physical Treatment and Rehab Center in Trabzon,
Şahin says that "I really miss the mountains.  I'm dreaming of climbing
them again. That's my home. I used to climb in the Kaçkar Mountains
and I want to again."

Şahin's father Yaşar Şahin noted that "the doctors said Mehmet would
be bedridden for life but my son has started to walk and talk again.
He's doing the impossible and he'll get even better."


The accident occurred at İspir, lower right - northwest of 
Erzurum. Şahin is from Rize and got rehabilitation in Trabzon's 
Maçka district.