Living Life to the Full
Despite suffering a devastating fall from a horse leaving him quadriplegic, Bastian ‘Basti’ Fernandez is determined to overcome the challenges he faces and keep living his life to the full. Yet, while he has made incredible progress on his road to recovery, he still requires vital financial support to help him adapt to his new life in Switzerland.On August 11, 2017, Argentine groom Bastian ‘Basti’ Fernandez’s life changed suddenly and dramatically. While working with the Legacy Polo Club in Switzerland, he suffered a tragic fall from a horse, resulting in major injuries to his fifth cervical vertebra. He was flown directly to Zurich University Hospital by helicopter and operated on the same evening. One week later he was transferred to the Paraplegic Centre in Nottwil and diagnosed with quadriplegia, involving all four limbs (both arms and legs).
As Basti is unable to live from his accident insurance pension alone, the Legacy Polo Club and Philipp Müller founded the Bastifund to raise funds to help cover the costs of Basti's livelihood and rehabilitation measures - financial support he still relies upon in order to go about his everyday life. Eight years after the accident, Basti lives in Switzerland with his mother, Carolina. The donations played a key role in his progress. In addition, an adapted car provides him with greater mobility in everyday life.
“I am always looking forward and trying to improve and be as independent as possible,” Basti says. “Having my own car has been one of my biggest achievements in recent times," says Basti. "It made me very happy and proud. I like driving in Switzerland because it's very efficient, easy and you just have to follow the rules. What was most difficult for me was getting used to the new way of driving, using my two hands. I always give the example it’s like using the joystick while playing a video game. Thankfully I played video games a lot when I was young and it has helped me to be able to drive now.”
Being able to drive himself has also enabled Basti to travel more easily to and from his job 45 minutes away at a photo studio at the Paraplegic Center in Nottwil - the same clinic he rehabilitated at - where he has worked for the past three years, since starting in the company as an intern. His main role is making photo and video edits in the office - work he has come to thoroughly enjoy.
After his rehabilitation following the accident, he spent six months in a house provided for him in Switzerland, before returning to the clinic to participate in the ‘Parawork’ programme, which helps people to reintegrate back into life, work or study, depending on their individual situation. During his two years in the programme he learned German and was given the opportunity to try photo and video editing using Adobe software.
He also receives life counselling with dedicated social workers from the Swiss Paraplegic Association (SPV), who are specially trained to listen and share their knowledge to help answer the questions and concerns of those with life-changing injuries.
While Basti is now settled and thriving in his new life in Switzerland, he and his mother usually go back to Argentina, their home country, every year for the holidays for around one month for the Christmas and New Year period - a trip which would not be possible without funds donated by Bastifund for his assistance. Travelling back to Argentina is challenging and expensive, particularly as Basti requires assistance from airport staff to help with his chair. In Argentina and Spain there is not the same awareness of how to effectively assist people with disabilities as there is in Switzerland, where he can get on a train practically alone, and everything is very well-adapted.
Basti is originally from a small, rural town called Lobos in the Province of Buenos Aires, 100 kilometers from the capital, and naturally, there are many things he misses about the Argentine way of life, such as the spontaneity of seeing his friends for mate and asados. Thankfully he has a large circle of friends and many of his friends from Argentina have come to visit him in Switzerland.
“Of my main friendship group from school, there are around 14 of us, and of those 14, 8 or 10 have come to visit,” says Basti. “Last year I had a wedding to go to in Argentina, accompanied by Matías Delgado, a friend from Spain who used to be a footballer, and he helped to assist me on the trip. Then I returned back to Switzerland from Argentina with my friend Marcos, and he stayed with me for three weeks. We explored around Nottwil and then we went to Barcelona and Milan.
I have had to re-adapt to everything, but I’m lucky my family and friends are always helping me and already know how to move me and help me with my chair. They are practically all nurses, and that has made everything much easier for me when I’m traveling. They even know how to help bathe me and help me get dressed etc. They are very supportive - we say in Argentina that they are made of iron.”
During the polo season, which starts in April in Switzerland, Basti often goes to Polo Park Zurich to watch games on Sundays. “I like being around horses,” he says. “I also like sport itself, and I enjoy seeing fellow Argentines at the club. Sometimes there are people there from the same town as me in Argentina, and it makes me feel like I'm back in Argentina when they come for the season here. I’m still actively involved in polo, and if I go to Spain on vacation I usually go to watch polo in SotoGrande as well. I still like being connected to polo.”
It can be incredibly difficult to accept any life-changing events, but Basti has an admirably pragmatic approach to his new life, believing that destiny may have played a part in his circumstances. And donations to Bastifund can help him to accomplish and sustain his dreams and aspirations for his future, such as becoming a father.
“I don't know why, but I felt that it had to happen to me, and not to another person in my family or any of my friends,” he ponders. “I do believe in destiny, but what happened to me was totally unexpected. It's like starting from scratch again and I have had to rebuild my life, because the accident changed me on a scale from zero to a hundred. I always said I was never going to work in an office, and now I'm working in an office, for example! Now I enjoy it, but after the accident I had to accept what had happened to me and change my mindset to be able to adapt to the situation. Now I believe anything is possible, and it is my dream to start my own family.”
The move to Switzerland was not only a big change for Basti, but for his mother, Carolina, who left Argentina straight away to be with her son, with very little time to process the transition.
“I'm never afraid to leave my comfort zone, even though I came here and didn't know how to speak the language, but I wasn't afraid of that,” she explains. “It was a case of “let's just see what happens…” I had to start from scratch here - I threw some clothes into a suitcase and arrived with very little and I was very unprepared for the weather. Some very kind people realised we were here and helped us by buying clothes for us, and that’s how we started out. We are very grateful to those people who helped us when we first got here. We also had Argentine friends travelling in Europe who made a detour to see us in Switzerland - who wouldn’t have come here otherwise. They just came to see us and to see if we needed anything.
What I left behind doesn't hold value to me at all now. Yes, there are some memories such as photo albums that I had to leave in the house, which I never had the opportunity to take. But it doesn't hurt at all. I know I have to be here, it's my place now.”
For Carolina, there are many positives of living in Switzerland. She loves the organization of the country, and how it has taught her to be patient - something that is often difficult in Argentinian culture. The economic security in Switzerland also gives her a lot of peace of mind.
“About four months after my accident, when I was still rehabilitating, they asked me at the clinic if we wanted to stay in Switzerland, and if so, they would help us find a house. Knowing that Switzerland was very organized, everything is on time and much more adapted for those with disabilities, we decided to try living here rather than going back to Argentina. And we haven’t looked back,” explains Basti.
“The hardest thing for me was understanding my body again and relying on the help of another person. It took me about two years for that to click and for me to accept this is how it is now, and I realized from that point on I had to change my mentality. I found it difficult to let myself be helped, because I always did practically everything myself. But everything has fallen into place now.
Looking back and seeing how far we have come already gives me strength to continue. It makes me realise what can be done and what I can go on to do in the future, as with the help of generous donations and financial support from Bastifund, I have achieved many things I thought would be impossible. For example, having my own car and driving myself or flying back to Argentina seemed like a huge step, and now I have successfully taken those leaps and it has made me stronger.
Ultimately, I am very grateful to everyone who has helped me and continues to support me.”
