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Harnessed to the developing machine thanks to which she can take a few steps, the aviator says she is convinced that her grandchildren “won’t even know what a wheelchair is” … Extract from the magazine “1:15 p.m. on Sunday” of 14 November 2021.
In May 1991, four people were on board a small tourist plane which crashed on the side of Mont d’Alambre, in the Massif Central. The only survivor of this accident is Dorine Bourneton, a 16-year-old passenger at the time. Paraplegic since, she decides to rebuild herself and becomes the first disabled woman in the world of aerobatic pilot. Free herself from gravity on earth as she does in the air, Dorine wants it.
This is why it participates, it participates in the development of an exoskeleton with which it walks and regains the standing position: “The only thing missing is a mirror to see yourself … she confides to the magazine “1:15 p.m. on Sunday” (replay) while she walks strapped to the machine. The very first time that I stood up with the exoskeleton, you really have the feeling of regaining your humanity, your dignity. “
“That time will come and it will be a wonderful world”
“We can talk to people eye to eye and that changes everything. Usually, we are always in a position of inferiority. It changes everything in the human relationship, specifies the pilot. I could see myself using this every day. I’d rather walk like this than ride a wheelchair. It is very tiring because we do the same thing as an able-bodied person but with less muscles. The machine feels the drive that we give and it accompanies us. She doesn’t do everything but she helps us. When you bend down, it’s really in a vacuum. “
“I’m sure our children’s children won’t even know what a wheelchair is. They’ll say to us, ‘What? There was a time when you used to ride in the street in a wheelchair with your arms? But how you were doing? It was extremely difficult… ‘I don’t know how I did it, but I had to do it because I had no choice. That moment will come someday… Everyone will be up and it will be a marvelous world”, says the godmother of the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Youth Foundation.
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