"Better three quarters alive than completely underground": Flight attendant back in the air after leg amputation
Created: 01/12/2023 10:08 am
By: Kilian Bäuml
After a bone cancer diagnosis, chemotherapy and leg amputation, Alexander Böhmer is again active as a flight attendant for Lufthansa from Frankfurt after 1518 days.
Frankfurt – In his early 20s, Alexander Böhmer received the life-changing diagnosis: bone cancer.
At that time he was working for Lufthansa, which has its headquarters at Frankfurt Airport.
"I probably said to my mother when I was seven: I want to work as a flight attendant for Lufthansa," he says.
Then came the knee pain and the disease was diagnosed.
Chemotherapy follows, then the leg has to be removed and replaced with a prosthesis.
"It's better to be three quarters alive than completely underground," his mother said to him, Böhmer recalls.
During his battle with cancer, the desire to make it back to his job was always a spur to him.
During his time in the hospital, he even put a model airplane on his bedside table.
He wanted to get well "because I knew I wanted to go back there," reports fnp.de.
After 1518 days, Alexander Böhmer can finally fly again.
© Andreas Arnold/dpa
Lufthansa flight attendant in Frankfurt: "I needed someone to encourage me"
In the hospital, Böhmer started using social media and quickly found people who shared a similar fate.
"I needed someone to encourage me," he says.
Before the amputation, he first searched for the hashtag #amputated.
“I then saw a mother carrying her baby with a prosthesis.
And I thought: She certainly isn't afraid of falling.
Otherwise she would not be carrying her baby.”
He also received a lot of encouragement from his community on the Internet.
"If you post that you can't do it anymore and want to give up - then 100 people post below: Yes, you can do it, keep going," says Böhmer.
That motivated him and while his friends were studying or moving, he fought his way back into life.
Around 100,000 people now follow him on Instagram, his profile says Cancersurvivor (in German: cancer survivor).
Frankfurt: The return to the Lufthansa plane took 1518 days
In the end, the fight was worth it for him - after all, Alexander Böhmer has been tumor-free since summer 2019.
But that was only the beginning of his journey back into the air.
Even after the operation, there was still a lot of work ahead of him.
Above all, he had to learn to walk safely with the prosthesis.
"In the beginning I couldn't even stand up, let alone take a step," says Böhmer.
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Anyone who has ever been on an airplane knows that even slight turbulence makes it difficult to walk.
You have to be able to trust your legs.
With a lot of training, diligence and physiotherapy tailored to his job, he worked towards his goal of being able to fly again - until he finally managed to get back on the plane.
1518 days lay between the last flight that Alexander Böhmer could make with two legs - and the first one that he took part in with a prosthesis.
He has been flying regularly again since October 2022.
In December, he also got the good news from his follow-up exam that it was cancer.
Last year there was another person at Lufthansa who is now allowed to fly again after fighting cancer.
BR
accompanied
Anna's fight against cancer for several months .
(kiba/dpa)
The Jacdec flight accident agency has determined the safest airlines for 2022.
Germany's largest airline, Lufthansa, with its headquarters in Frankfurt, does not end up in the top ten.
