David Holmes, Daniel Radcliffe's 'Harry Potter' stuntman, recalls the moment he was paralyzed on the

• David Holmes, Daniel Radcliffe's 'Harry Potter' stunt double, broke his neck on set in 2009.
• He was rehearsing a stunt for the final movie, he said in a new documentary about his life.
• Radcliffe and Holmes have been close friends since meeting on the first film's set.

Daniel Radcliffe's "Harry Potter" stunt double recalled the moment he was paralyzed from the chest down on the set of the franchise's final film, in a new HBO documentary "David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived."

David Holmes was Radcliffe's lead stunt double in the first six Harry Potter movies, and the pair have been close friends since.

Radcliffe said in the documentary that he executive-produced: "He did so much for me that was crazy. Every time you see someone get blasted across the floor and hitting a stone, that was Dave."

In January 2009, Holmes broke his neck while rehearsing a stunt for a fight scene between Potter and Voldemort's snake Nagini in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One."

The stunt involved being heavily jerked back into a wall and was done using a pulley system attached to weighted bags.

"As soon as I left the floor, as soon as I had the load hit me… I was like no that's too big," Holmes recalled in the documentary of the moment.

"I remember hitting the wall. My chest folded into my nose. I was fully conscious throughout the whole thing," he said.

Holmes knew instantly that he had broken his neck, he said, and was rushed to hospital where it became apparent he was paralyzed from the chest down. He had sensation in and control of his head, face, neck, arms, and hands, but was told the rest of his mobility would never come back.

Holmes may lose more mobility and function

Holmes' initial recovery was "pretty good," he said, and he tried to maintain a positive attitude from the start.

"I told all my family and my friends straight away. Try and hope for me to be happy like I am, not happy like you want me to be. Because there's a good chance that won't be achievable," Holmes said.

However, things took a turn for the worse in May 2009 when doctors discovered Holmes had spinal syrinx, a cyst on the spinal cord that can cause neurological problems such as spasms, pain down the arms, and progressive muscle weakness.

He underwent an 11-hour surgery to drain the cyst, but he still deals with these symptoms, and over the last three years he has lost more function in his arms and hands, he said. It is possible that he could eventually lose the ability to talk and swallow, he said.

"I've had to adapt a lot and I'm still having to adapt every day. It's a mental test constantly," he said.

Despite this, Holmes is able to accept his condition most of the time, and that he is on his own unique journey, he said: "I was able to find light in the darkest of places."

Radcliffe saw Holmes as 'a cool older brother' on set

Radcliffe saw Holmes as "a cool older brother," and said that his closest friends on set were the members of the crew.

"I wanted to make something about Dave for years because he's extraordinary and I wanted to share that with the world," Radcliffe told PEOPLE.

"I don't want to talk about Dave as if his life is a tragedy because it's really not. The way that his life has affected the lives of those around him means that it is the furthest thing from that imaginable," he said in the documentary.

"This is the story that matters the most to me from 'Potter,'" Radcliffe said.

Watch: Here's what it's like to be one of Hollywood's busiest stuntmen

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