Lars on Usedom

The howling gets closer and then the first leashed wolf appears on the beach. Wait a second – a wolf on a leash? No, of course not. That’s not a wolf on the sand near Heringsdorf on Usedom, but a husky, a sled dog followed closely by seven other huskies, a complete dogsled team. They are accompanied by a strong, bald man who is pulling a four-wheel cart behind him and a petite blond woman who shouts out commands to the pack of hounds, telling them where to go. That is, straight to Lars and his parents.

“The dogs can hardly wait,” says Marianne, the dogsled musher, when she gets within shouting distance. “How are you doing, Lars?” “I’m exited!” he says. “It’s going to be pure freedom!”

Freedom is very important to Lars. Diastrophic dysplasia has left him with arms and legs that are shorter than extremities of other adults. His spinal cord and breathing muscles are damaged, so at night he depends on LUISA, his ventilator. During the day LUISA gives him support when he exerts himself. At this moment Lars is being ventilated to make him strong for the upcoming adventure.

But first a flashback. Just one day earlier Lars, Inge and Michel checked out the musher camp in Heringsdorf to which mushers and their dogs had traveled for a race on Usedom. Lars started up a conversation with the musher couple Marianne and Dirk. When they learned of his long-prepared plan, they were all in. “You want to ride along? Sure! We can do that!” Dirk said. 

Less than 24 hours later, Lars is being strapped into a special car seat that had been fastened to the training cart with lashing straps. The dogs are barking impatiently. Lars is finally ready to go. He sits up front on the cart with Marianne behind him in musher position. A quick command and the dogs begin running, the cart behind them getting off to a jerky start. Mushers use training carts when there isn’t enough snow for sleds. Fast rides can be made with carts too; Marianne promises up to 30 kilometers per hour. Now the cart is racing toward the horizon – with an astonished Inge watching every move.

“Look! Look at that!” she calls excitedly to her husband. Michel looks, but doesn’t say a word. The same for Dirk, whose eyes tear up.

And Lars? He sits in the cart, grinning from ear to ear, enjoying the speed and the flow. The wind whistles past him and every uneven spot on the ground shakes him up. “That was so cool,” he says later after being lifted back onto his wheelchair. “It was like I was weightless!”

In the evening at the hotel, spirits are still high. Lars and Michel are already planning the next adventure. Lars would love to go diving. “Unfortunately,” he says, “we haven’t come up with a solution for the ventilator.” Hearing that, Inge can only shake her head and say, “Sometime, somehow, we’ll manage that too. It’s always been that way. Since we’ve had Lars, our motto is Nothing is impossible.”