A filmmaker has been left paralysed from the chest down after diving head-first into a lake while celebrating his 40th birthday.
Ersin “Eko” Cilesiz was marking the milestone with 20 friends on a rented boat.
When the captain stopped at what was believed to be a safe swimming spot, the group prepared to cool off.
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Witnesses say the captain repeatedly assured everyone the water was deep enough to dive into.
As the birthday boy, Ersin was invited to jump first. However, the water at the spot was only about one metre deep.
He struck his head on the lake bed, fracturing his spine at chest level.
His girlfriend, Juli Hopper, later told local media: “I didn’t see the dive, then I heard the screams.
“He was holding his head in his hands and shouting, ‘I can’t feel my legs any more!'”
Friends rushed to help the director while others called the emergency services on 11 July.
He was airlifted from Wannsee lake in Berlin, Germany, to hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery.
Since the accident, Ersin has remained in hospital. He spent a period on a ventilator and was initially unable to speak.
Doctors have diagnosed him with paralysis from the chest down.
Investigators are now examining whether the boat captain bears any responsibility or whether an unseen sandbank caused the unexpectedly shallow water.
Ersin, who studied directing at Munich’s University of Television and Film, is regarded as one of Germany’s rising film and television talents.
He directed the short films Shaitan (2012) and Tariq (2018), as reported by Need To Know.
The latter, about a 16-year-old boy whose family flees ISIS fighters into a forest near the Syrian-Turkish border, won the Second Prize for Best Short Film at Spain’s L’Alfàs del Pi Film Festival in 2019.
Ersin also directed the TV series ARD Themenwoche: Toleranz vor Acht (2015) and produced the short film Prisoners of the Body (2020).
His friends and family have launched a GoFundMe campaign to help cover the substantial costs of rehabilitation, home adaptations, mobility equipment and therapy, as not all expenses are covered by health insurance.
Juli wrote online: “We – his family and friends – are with Ersin around the clock. We lift his spirits, cry together and look after him and each other.”
In a positive update, she revealed he can now “breathe, drink, eat and, probably the thing that makes him happiest, speak again” on his own.
The filmmaker is expected to be transferred to a rehabilitation centre later this week.
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