It was May 11. Marc Roma, son of the Dakar winner Nani Roma and his wife, also a driver, Rosa Romero, suffered an accident in a European motocross event in Galicia. I was 15 years old. The fall caused paraplegia after injuring his thoracic vertebrae: he lost mobility in his legs. They immediately realized that it was serious. They didn’t know if he would walk again. His life had changed completely. But now he works in rehabilitation with a robotic exoskeleton that allows him to get up and walk, and although he doesn’t have one at home now, he looks to the future in the hope of achieving one. “For a person with a spinal cord injury, the fact of being able to stand up and be able to look at people at the same height, in the eyes, not from the chair, is something incredible, in addition to being a health issue,” explains Nani. to Morning Express. At his side, Marc, with a clear message: “You always have to try not to give up, no matter how many things happen. If with this we can help people who are in a similar situation to ours, encourage them to play sports, improve and be happy, we are very happy.”
That day in May, after falling from his motorcycle, Marc was taken to a hospital in A Coruña. After doing an MRI they saw that his spinal cord was affected: he suffered an injury to the T3-T4, thoracic vertebrae. They operated on him, he was admitted to the ICU for 11 days and then they returned home to work on his recovery at the Institut Guttmann, the neurorehabilitation center specialized in spinal cord injuries in Barcelona. “At first, it is a complicated feeling. You see the severity of the injury, that your life changes quickly at times. It’s hard and difficult. Reality is complex, it is not easy for anyone,” explains Nani. “Two months since that moment that changed my life in a second. An accident, many gray days in the ICU, many things not understood, many life lessons ahead. In short, a change that no one is prepared for. And the first lesson is that you have to fight,” Marc wrote on his Instagram some time after the accident.
At the Institut Guttmann he began his first steps in rehabilitation, and they taught him how to operate a wheelchair. “Marc immediately progressed very quickly, also at his age everything is much easier. Recovery began immediately, and he left there in August. At home we set up a gym, with various therapists who come to train. Between school and training he is very busy,” confesses Nani. Resilience is something that runs in your blood. His father was detected with a malignant tumor in the bladder in 2022, for which he underwent surgery, underwent chemotherapy and just a year and a half later he returned to compete. Marc has the same culture of effort. “By working hard we have seen that progress is made, with many hours in the gym, every day he has more trunk control. There is not much written about this, and we only know that by working we advance,” Nani explains. “I’m motivated, seeing that I’m improving,” adds Marc.
Now, the 16-year-old is working on his rehabilitation with a robotic exoskeleton for clinical use that helps him stand, get up and be able to walk. The Roma family already knew of its existence. “It is a very expensive device. It is complex to find and there are few centers that have it,” says Nani. But a Catalan startup went to present the rehabilitation mechanism to the Institut Guttmann and Nani contacted them. Since then, Marc has been working with the exoskeleton, he has more and more contact and better control, but he still does not have one at home. “It can be a great complement to all the bone marrow treatments out there. By allowing you to stand up, it is good for the intestines, the bones, giving strength again to the joints… it is great,” explains the Dakar champion, highlighting the importance of “democratizing” the possibility that more people can access these devices to improve your quality of life.
Nani will leave on the 30th on his way to the Dakar, a competition in which he won in 2004 in motorcycles and in 2014 in cars. His wife, Rosa, has also competed in the desert on two and four wheels. It’s no surprise that Marc has gasoline in his DNA. “At the moment, I’m thinking about recovering, but I’m already looking at things [para competir]”says the young man. “This is in the blood,” confesses his father at his side. And Nani reflects: “Yesterday is the past, let’s live today and tomorrow we will see. The only thing we can do is change the present and future, working to improve what is coming.” For now, Marc will continue to make efforts, hoping for technological advances such as the exoskeleton he already uses.
