In 2002 I had the misfortune of falling 60 feet onto concrete.  I landed on my head, my left knee, and my right hand and forearm.  My left eye was dislodged, my skull was split open, my right wrist and knew were destroyed.  My right wrist had to be fused as a result of the accident.  My left knee was so bad ( I lost ¾ of my knee cap) the doctors said I needed two more surgeries before I could walk.  My neck (my cervical vertebrae) was cracked, along with my thoracic 5^th vertebrae.  I lost my spleen and one foot of my intestines.  There were many other complications, but none as severe as the ones mentioned below.

3 ½ days prior a lady hit my truck from behind.  I was at a dead stop.  She was going 45 – 55 mph.  I was knocked unconscious.  When I came to, I was up on a curb, facing a wooded area.  I couldn’t move my left arm.  Still delirious, I opened my door w/my right hand, and fell out of my truck.  My left leg was numb too.  Evidently, I had cracked my seventh cervical vertebrae.  I staggered over to the girl who hit me from behind.  She was bleeding.  I could smell the marijuana she had been smoking.  Her car was totaled.  I had a tree service company and I was on my way to a job with my crew following behind me.  I told my foreman to go on ahead to the job, which was less than one mile away.  I drew him a map and gave him the lady’s name, address, and phone number.  The police arrived and I told one officer I was hurt.  He said he would deal with me after they got the girl out of her car.  After she was out, and on her way to the hospital, the policeman directed me to the ambulance.  I started giving the ambulance my information, and my phone rang.  It was my foreman.  He was lost.  I told him to pleased try to find the lady again and he said she wasn’t home when he called her.  I had to leave the scene, find him, take him to the job, and do most of the job myself.  I had to pick up my 7 year old son at the bus stop and my daughter at 4 at o’clock at her school.  I did one estimate, went home, made a few phone calls, made dinner, and relaxed.  The next two days I never had time to go to the hospital.  On the third day, after the car accident, I had to start a large condominium job, as I promised.  We arrived at the job at 8:15 am.  I dropped some trees in the front year, and let my crew clean them up as I went in the backyard over the pool.  I had to remove several large branches over the roof of the 4 storey condo.  I ascended the tree, which was also over a pool.  At 50 feet up in the tree I realized it wouldn’t be safe to try to walk out to the end of the first branch I had to remove.  I decided to go another 10 feet higher.  At 60 feet up in the tree, I raised my right hand up to a branch to pull myself higher.  This would not have been safe as the tree was leaning to the right.  I raised my left hand over my head to grab the branch and looked up at the same time, putting pressure on my cracked 7^th cervical vertebrae.  I had what is known as a vertebral compression.  I remember seeing little balls of light exploding and slowly dissipating into  the blue sky.  I remembered the feeling I had right before I fell asleep every night at that moment.  I passed out.  I woke up two days later in the hospital.  My life would change forever!

The paramedics took me by helicopter to a severe trauma hospital.  I was in that hospital for almost 2 months.  While in the hospital, I noticed clear rubbery fluid coming out of my nose.  I asked the nurse, and she said not to worry about it.  My doctor never checked on me.  If he had, he would have brought me right back into surgery.  The substance running from my nose was spinal fluid.  My doctor neglected to seal my brain sack.  He had to pull the bone fragments from my brain, and never sealed the brain sack.  He removed my left sinus cavity, and put mental plates in my head, and sent me on my way.  I never had proper rehabilitation therapy while in the hospital.  The physical therapist had me do movement therapy for my good leg and hand, but never any therapy for my injured knee or hand.  I was happy to get out of the hospital.  I knew I could get better on my own. 

With the spinal fluid still building and putting pressure on my brain, I couldn’t speak or comprehend what was going on around me within three months out of the hospital.  I had to run my business for those three months, and the men I hired began to take advantage of me.  Luckily, I sold my business within four months.  I made myself get out of the wheelchair within one month.  The first week in the walker, I staggered for one mile around my neighborhood.  Every stop I took, I threw up.  I was in so much pain.  I fell down four times the first day.  None of my neighbors, who I thought were my friends, would help.  After one month, I was able to walk without a walker.  I was very determined to run again.  I loved running.  I was always one of the fastest runners in my school.  I wanted to feel the wind in my face again.

 My neck condition continued to get worse.  The fluid was getting so great one the left side of my brain; I began having trouble using my right side.  I began to walk like I had cerebral palsy.  Soon I couldn’t walk at all, and I was bedridden.  My wife was in California with my daughter and young son, and I was left with my older two siblings, who were enjoying their freedom.  They didn’t know I was dying.  In the fifth month after my accident, I couldn’t move.  For two weeks I laid in my bed.  No one knew I was dying.  Lucky for me, my brother Dennis from N.J. kept calling me.  When no one returned his call for two weeks, he called the hospital.  They came to my house, picked me up and took me in the a Cat Scan.  When they saw all the problems with my brain they knew they had to operate.  They cut my skull from one ear to the other, over my forehead, pulled it forward, sealed the brain sack, filled the void the previous neuro surgeon left above my left eye, and removed the metal plates in my head.  Two days later, I came too.  For the first time in six months, I could think clearly.  I could finally move my right foot.  I was back.  Now I knew I could come back to my old self. 

Less than one month later, I had the first of five grand mal seizures.  I was selling one of my horses, speaking with the potential buyer at my breakfast table.  I remember hating the way I had to be rude and continue to look over my right shoulder.  After the third time looking over my right shoulder, I passed out.  I had my first grand mal seizure.  I woke up in the hospital.  I didn’t know what happened.  The doctors held me for one day and sent me home.  Two days later, I had my second grand mal seizure.  The ambulance came to my house again and took me to the hospital.  They gave me dilantin.  I didn’t know what the drug was, and they never told me.

One month later, at my sister’s wedding, in the middle of the dance floor, I had my third grand mal seizure.  My sister’s husband was horrified.  The ambulance came and began to prepare to take me to the hospital.  I finally was able to speak and I told them I didn’t want to go.  I told them I wall alright.  Everyone at the wedding was shocked.  I had always been so strong and healthy. 

Two days later, I had my fourth grand mal seizure while at a job.  Again, the ambulance came and again I refused to go with them.  On December 17, 2002, I had my fifth grand mal seizure while working out a the gym for the first time in eight months.  I was a member of Southside Fitness in Sarasota, Florida.  I wanted to work my left leg as I was upset it had atrophied into almost nothing.  I was pushing it hard on the leg press machine when I felt that sensation I dreaded.  I had a grand mal seizure right in the middle of the gym!  According to several witnesses, I died.  No one in the gym knew CPR.  Not the manager or the fitness trainers.  I have a certificate in Fitness Training and the ISSA requires that one gets certified in CPR before the fitness certification is issued.  Luckily a fireman came into the gym and saved me.  I was hospitalized for four days, and got my first prescription of dilantin.  I haven’t had a seizure since.

I started working out at my house.  I had a complete gym in the garage.  I knew what I had to do.  I worked out with light weights and stretched between each set.  I worked my injured hand everyday.  The doctors said with a fused wrist I would never get the forearm developed in my right forearm.  My right forearm is now bigger than my left.  They said I would never get abdominal muscles or be able to walk.  Now I can do the most difficult ab exercises in the world and I can run!  The human body is amazing – Thanks be to God! 

While rehabilitating myself, I craved certain foods, and bought (and ate) them.  When my brain was healing I craved blueberries.  I’d walk down the fruit and vegetable isle in the grocery store and let my body find what it wanted – and needed.  I ate broccoli, carrots, red bell peppers, bananas, oranges, apples, romaine and red leaf lettuce.  I loved kiwis – the most nutritious fruit of all.  I began to study why I craved these foods, and found out why.  Within eight months, my older son Michael saw me as I came out of the garage after a workout and he said, “You’re back!” 

In 2 ½ years of working out I know I can get my strength, endurance and flexibility back to what it was before the accident – and more!!  I can help you too!