'Can't slow me down': Paralyzed U.S. skydiver conquers Dubai's skies

Skydiver Jarrett Martin is a stark reminder of what can go wrong in extreme sports.
The Dubai-based young American is also a powerful advertisement for putting safety first when you tackle a stunt laced with potentially fatal risks.
Martin wasn't even out of his teens when the sport with which he was obsessed almost killed him. Yet, he came back from the brink to chalk up a world first -- and secure a job at the busiest sky diving center in the Middle East.
The 24-year-old is a familiar figure at Skydive Dubai, where he is one of just two qualified master parachute riggers in the United Arab Emirates.
Earlier this year, Martin achieved even more notoriety when he completed 11 so-called BASE jumps -- from a fixed structure or cliff -- in four days in the Norwegian fjords.
Leaving his wheelchair at the summit of a 3,000-foot (914 meters) peak, he pushed himself off and became the first disabled person to successfully make such a jump unassisted.
By rights the Seattle-born sportsman shouldn't be here at all.
At 18, a jump stunt went wrong and left him fighting for his life with a broken back, a torn aorta, battered lungs and kidneys, and paralyzed from the chest down.
Martin emerged from his coma and had a question for the doctors who saved him.
"'When can I start skydiving again', I asked," he recalls.
MORE: Insider guide to the best of DubaiInspirational journeyMost people would have quit and considered their luck at surviving. Yet, not only did Martin dive out of a plane six months later, he became one of just two disabled people in the world to complete a BASE jump