EXTREME SPORTS ENTHUSIAST

Sport plays a really big part in Scharti’s life. He loves it and it keeps him happy and well-balanced. If he is unable to enjoy some of his outdoor sport, his quality of life suffers dramatically. But, as he explains: “With sport there will be injuries. If orthodox medicine doesn’t work for you any more, you start looking for other options and suddenly you open your mind to new ways of treatment, some of them quite inexplicable. Pure misery led me into the hands of Douglas Ballard.

I was riding powder snow and hit a very unexpected rock. My ankle took the full force of the hit and burned like fire… that was the day over! In the evening it really started to hurt, I couldn’t stand on it anymore and I had to find my set of crutches. In hospital the next day there was some good news after X-rays; no broken bones, but stretched ligaments, a torn capsule and haematoma in the joint.

By pure chance I bumped into Douglas, who was healing in good old Mayrhofen (Austria) for a couple of days. He found some time for me and worked in three sessions on my injured foot. It sounds pretty trashy, but I walked in on crutches and walked out without them. That was 24 hours later.

It still took me two months before I could put full pressure on my ankle. But after a couple of days the pain was pretty much gone, I could walk without pain and started jogging soon after that. I could do a nice little training programme to keep me kind of fit instead of sitting around or limp with crutches.”