Barcelona“I’m 27 years old and I can’t walk.” Mariona Boix’s life took a 180° turn on Friday, March 13, 2015. In an alpine skiing competition in Andorra, in the downhill category, she fell and suffered what is called the cursed triad: the tear of the anterior cruciate ligament, the medial meniscus and the medial lateral ligament of the left knee. At the age of 19, she saw her dreams of being an Olympian fade away and she began a long and painful journey that has not yet ended today. Seven years later, he has been in the operating room twelve times to try to heal his knee, but, as of now, he still has an injury that prevents him from leading an ordinary life.
Mariona looks at the stairs of the ARA editorial office with respect. Without leaving aside his crutch, he climbs the steps with pause and tranquility. “I can’t bend it to go up the stairs,” he admits. The knee has deprived him and conditioned him of many things: fulfilling his dreams, making plans and even leading a normal life. His strength sometimes fails him and negative thoughts often run through his head. “There are days when I don’t want to get out of bed. It’s an effort because I have no motivation. Nobody is waiting for me. I’m the one who’s waiting for time to pass and my knee problem to be solved. I do everything what they tell me, but it doesn’t work. You try to carry it as you can and you have crappy days and times,” he confesses with soft eyes, and admits that he was close to not coming to the interview.
The day when everything changed will remain forever in Mariona’s memory. He was not aware of what might come next. He had never considered how an injury could cut short his career. “I was 19 years old and part of the Spanish Winter Sports Federation. It was Friday and I was at a competition in Andorra. I wasn’t aware of what it was to break my knee or all that it involved or could involve. Everything I saw it as time went by,” he confesses. “When I got injured I didn’t even consider that I would have to leave high-level sport. I accepted that I had to stop and it was already very hard. Then I remained connected to the world of skiing as a coach, already that even though I had several operations I could still put my skis on. For the past two years, in which I’ve had five operations, I haven’t put them on again. Now I’m at a point where I can’t walk normally, without pain and without blockages.”
The first operation is the one that marked Mariona’s future. “It probably wasn’t done as well as possible or I didn’t go into the OR like I should have. I didn’t have full range of motion in my knee. I had some limitations before the first operation and I had 20 degrees left to stretch it “Until the internal side was repaired, I didn’t go into the operating room, even though I did it with my leg semi-flexed,” he admits. “Days later I was discharged, but I had discomfort from minute 1 after the operation. I went skiing eight months later and when I took my boots off I was limping. I spoke to the physiotherapists and the doctors at the Federation to get me tested again. They told me I wouldn’t have anything, but I could see that my knee wasn’t working the way it should. I had an MRI and we saw that a piece of the cruciate ligament that “they had reconstructed it was broken and that I had a ball of tissue that did not allow me to fully stretch my knee. The very next day I have surgery and they tell me that in three weeks I will be skiing again. Two months later, in a lot of pain and without being able to stretch the knee, it had not improved,” recalls the exesquiadora.
That was the moment when the Federation informed her that they did not count on her and that she was out. “I had been unemployed for a year and I am beginning to be aware that the knee does not work. In April the Federation informed me that I was being kicked out. They did not take care of anything: neither when I was in, nor when I was out. Not a simple call. They misunderstood it,” he emphasizes. From there, the road has been hers alone with the support of her family and friends. He has been to three different hospitals, where he has had twelve operations: six at Dexeus (with two different teams), one in Madrid and five at Teknon, a center where the doctors have informed him that there is nothing left to do do surgery to reverse the injury. There is only one option left: a stem cell treatment.
“It’s a private treatment. That’s why I decided to do a fundraising campaign to be able to afford it. I achieved the goal, €16,000 in 24 days. With the rest, up to the €18,000 that the treatment costs, m “a private association helps,” he acknowledges. This treatment has “a chance of success like doing a coat of paint on surfaces that are protected”, acknowledges Dr. Cuscó, a doctor who is part of the team of Dr. Cugat, specialist in knee injuries in high-level athletes. “The approach of biological treatments would be indicated in this type of situation, but beforehand a wide cleaning of the joint and a release of the patella should be done to achieve a full extension of the knee”, emphasizes the doctor, who has offered , again, his services to the athlete as a result of this report.
“You go into an operation with hope and a week later I could already see that it wasn’t working. The wafer was even stronger,” Mariona admits. This Wednesday, July 27, he underwent the second part of the treatment. Now, with rehabilitation and patience, the skier will know if the definitive solution for her knee has arrived.
