Janis has neither arms nor legs: “it is a pleasure for me, if I get honked at when driving a car

If Janis McDavid, 27, sits in the car and of the traffic participants honked at, he is happy. Then the young German feels on an equal footing. Because the other drivers don’t realize that there’s someone sitting behind the wheel of either his arms or legs.

When Janis speaks McDavid to listen to all of them. Because if the young man is talking about optimism or about how you come out of a personal cul-de-SAC, the under the skin. Janis McDavid knows what he is talking about. He embodies it literally.

The 27-Year-old was born without arms and legs. In his everyday life he must grow according to current standards and permanently beyond himself, because he leads a largely normal life. He lives in his own apartment, he studied, attended seminars, completed internships, he travels through the country, to hold lectures and expanding its borders still further.

Janis McDavid drives a car like everyone else

He wanted to drive a car, like all the others. Today, he drives a specially modified Mercedes Sprinter. A loading ramp, he controls the wheelchair to the rear, slides out from the seat and bounces to the front on the driver’s seat. The key, he puts the mouth into the castle. As a steering Wheel, Gas and brake with a Joystick attached to the seat and the Janis McDavid under his left armpit is stuck. "For me, this is a feeling of Gleichberechtigung", he says. In the traffic, no one listens to him. When he is honked at, pleased him even.

Its very rare malformation is called a Tetra-Amelie. Behind it is a genetic Defect that prevents the formation of the limbs during the embryonic development. The genetic causes were discovered in 2004 by researchers at the University of Giessen.

Shock when he sees himself in the mirror: "I always had a very different image of me in the Kopf"

His biological parents were overwhelmed and were looking for adoptive parents for her son. Janis grew up in his new family with two siblings. "For us, it was clear that the Boy gets no extra sausage. According to the Motto: As little help as possible and as much help as nötig", Janis McDavid recalls in an interview with FOCUS Online. He played in the sand box, at 19 months, he got an electric wheelchair that he controlled himself. He visited the nursery, and dreamed of becoming a policeman, came to the school. "Actually, it could go on forever."

Then there was the Moment that made him suddenly realize that he is different. Janis was eight years old, it was in the morning, just before the school. "We had overslept and were in a hurry. I hopped through our house the hallway and suddenly I saw myself in the new wardrobe mirror. I was scared, because suddenly I realized for the first Time, how I look. I always had a very different image of me in your head. I thought that was pretty terrible."

Invacare / Zacharias Pimenidis Janis McDavid controls his wheelchair with a Joystick.

It’s been years, in which Janis McDavid to rank, how should he deal with his Situation, followed. Retreat, to show, belonged to at times. As a Teenager, he wished prostheses, to be able to Sport and wear long pants to participate. "Then I had them and not realized, that is enough. To find Balance is extremely difficult. Since it was clear to me: Actually, life without a prosthesis is much easier."

With amazing ease he copes with everyday life

This was the first step, to stand his appearance. Today, he shows himself conscious in Public, in the University or at work. At some point he began to hold lectures, have a topic: How do you manage yourself to accept. In the fall, he won an International Speaker Slam in Hamburg. The lectures and a book he has written, in the professional direction.

With a startling ease, the young man makes the missing limbs of betting. The keyboard of the laptop he uses with a Armstummel, notes he makes the pen in the mouth to be clamped, such as a Ball, he jumps from the wheelchair, the soup he eats, he balanced the spoon with the Armstummel of the bowl and the mouth to the spoon. His apartment is all set to voice recognition, and a command for the lights to go on or off.

With each adventure, the comfort zone will be expanded further

His Hobby is long-distance travel. So far, Janis McDavid takes his extended Trips with two friends. A carries him in a backpack high wear of the mountains in Peru. Whenever it comes, bounces McDavid independently through the area. "Since I have solved the hand brake, I don’t trust myself a lot more stuff." His comfort zone to extend more to be haunted by a new Plan in his head: The first long-distance trip alone.

And if he could wish for anything? "Even if there was the possibility of me arms and legs grow, I would reject it."

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