"SIR, I don't think we should leave that young paraplegic patient in plaster casts. Look at him, he has a bedsore already!"
Ludwig Guttmann winced as he said these words.
The hospital director, like many people, believed people paralysed from the leg down could not be helped in any way.
The director swelled unpleasantly and boomed back: "You, Guttmann, are too optimistic. These people can't be helped.
"You make them thrilled beyond their dreams and then they die.
"That doesn't help. You just don't understand."
"No, sir, you don't understand,"Guttmann replied, feeling far less brave than he was showing.
"They die because they are so pessimistic about their future and problems like bedsores just make them waste away."
But, from that moment, he knew that was no use. No one would believe him.
The director twiddled his moustache gloatingly and strode away.
Having gained his doctorate in 1924, Dr Ludwig Guttmann was a top neurosurgeon in Germany.
But with the rise of the Nazis, he and his fellow Jews like him were not allowed to work in German hospitals.
They were forced to work in Jewish hospitals.
"Sir, Mr Guttmann, the hospital is overflowing with patients whom the Nazis have attacked. What do we do?"
Guttmann coolly replied: "Prepare new wards and allow everyone to take shelter, injured or not."
"But sir..."
"Do it!"
Thanks to Dr Guttmann, 60 out of 64 people were saved from the torture of deportation and concentration camps.
Despite being in the Nazis bad books, he was allowed to leave Germany when he was ordered to treat a good friend of Hitler's, the Portuguese dictator Antonio de Olivier Salazar.
Dr Guttmann settled in England and continued research in Nuffield's department of neurosurgery.
After some time, the British Government asked Guttmann to open a new spinal injury unit at Stoke Mandeville.
The new Stoke Mandeville Unit treated many casualties of war.
Dr Guttmann soon noticed that paraplegics had a strong initiative to do some kind of sporting activity.
He set up the first Stoke Mandeville Games on the same day on the London Olympics started in 1948 with a wish to make these games go international.
He inspired millions of disabled people to believe in themselves and make something of their lives.
The life-changing games were first called the Paraplegic Games and then the Paralympic Games – more than 300 athletes entering to participate in the first International Paralympic Games, which were held in 1960 in Rome.