A Coventry man paralyzed in a falling tree becomes a doctor in Birmingham

A medical student who was paralyzed from the waist down after falling from a tree has graduated as a doctor and is set to balance a medical career with Paralympic training.

Xander Van der Poll was 19 when he climbed an old oak tree in Lavender Hall Park in Balsall Common, Solihull, while walking his dogs near his family home in 2018.

He slipped and fell three meters (9.8 feet) onto the roots below – breaking his back and puncturing a lung.

Surgeons spent nine operating hours and the keen rugby player remained in hospital for four months.

Exactly six weeks after his accident, he took his first-year medicals from his hospital bed – the University of Bristol sending a proctor there.

After six years, the 25-year-old, who lives near Coventry, graduated from Dr Van der Poll.

The graduate, who works in A&E at a Birmingham hospital and was training for the 2028 Paralympics, said of his fall: “It really did a number on me.

“You just don’t expect it to happen to you. I was in incredible pain for a few weeks and was very worried about all the things I couldn’t do. I thought I wouldn’t be able to be a doctor, play rugby or just have a normal life.

He added: “I was very lucky to have my family around me. My mother was by my side every day.”

The university paid tribute to Dr Van der Poll, who it said had “walked through” medical school and won an achievement award, as well as excelling in several para-sports including athletics, rowing and basketball.

Eventually, he found canoeing and now paddles a va’a—a one-person, double-hulled boat used for millennia in Polynesia and now used in paracanoeing.

Dr Van der Poll said: “People’s opinions are actually far more debilitating than your actual disability.

“People said all kinds of things to me after the accident. During a medical placement, a doctor sat me down and listed all the things I couldn’t do.

“The funny thing was that the list was based on assumptions and none of the assumptions were actually true.”

The canoeist recently competed in his first European Championships, where he missed the final by 0.2 seconds, and has a hope for the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

He and his wife, Kirsty Van der Poll, who is an amputee, run the Instagram account ourchaoticadventure, which aims to destigmatize disability for their 11,500 followers.

“It shows us to live each day as if it were our last and as if it were a gift,” said Dr. Van der Poll.