Daniela Maier was in good health until she was 30 years old. Then, after a HIT type II, she had both her lower legs amputated. After one and a half years in hospital and rehabilitation, she has learned to see her life from a different perspective. How she wants to help other people in such an extreme situation and what her blog has to do with it, she tells us at REHACARE.com.
Name: Daniela Maier Age: 35 City: Munich, Germany Occupation:Corporate customer support Impairment: Lower leg amputation on both sides according to HIT type 2 in 2013
Daniela Maier: A lot of situations in my everyday life. There is no day I don't laugh about myself, because I don't take myself too serious.
What have you always been wanting to do and why have you never done this so far?
Daniela Maier: Taking a longer break from my job and traveling through Asia. So far, I have been lacking the necessary financial cushion and the associated planning effort has put me off.
Which person has influenced you most? And why?
Daniela Maier: My mother, she is a very empathetic and open-minded person. She often backs up her own needs. I used to see this selflessness as a weakness, today I try to be more like her myself.
You have the chance to become the Commissioner for the Disabled in your country. What would you do first?
Daniela Maier: Implement measures to make people with disabilities more visible in all areas of public life, such as in the media. People with disabilities often live in a kind of parallel society.
Her trip to New York was planned differently, but her one year lasting hospital stay put a spoke in her wheel. However, she fulfilled her dream after her recovery. Now Asia is next on her bucket list.
What is especially near and dear to you?
Daniela Maier: Currently the project PiK - Peer Counseling in the Hospital: Here I am available as an amputee for people with a similar fate as a contact person. Especially before and after the amputation.
I would like to be ...
Daniela Maier: ...known for having helped other people in crisis situations through my blog and the establishment of a network and for promoting the exchange between people with leg amputation.
Which question would you like to get answered?
Daniela Maier: How well will I cope with my disability until old age?
What else I wanted to say about me...
Daniela Maier: Life is beautiful, nobody said it would be easy. :)
What makes other people actually happy in life? If you ever wondered, you have come to the right place. In regular intervals REHACARE.com asks a varity of people always the same questions. What results from that? Read for yourself!