Who Is Jeffrey Galli, And
Why?
Jeffrey Benjamin Galli was born
on November 26, 1980...
...and then again on July 4, 1998.
The first time Jeff was born,
doctors cut open his mom’s belly and plucked him out, covered in gore,
while his dad took pictures and smiled. It was a violent start, but Jeff
could not have picked a better world to be born into, or a better time to
arrive.
For the first seventeen years of
his life, Jeff traveled the same erratic path other children
were traveling in late 20th Century America. He had thoroughly
“logged on” to a life his parents’ generation could hardly recognize or
appreciate.
In Jeffrey’s world, school
was too dull, the summers too short, the ski-board trails too easy, and the bungee
platform not nearly high enough. Jeffrey grew into his young adulthood at
a time when nothing was beyond imagining. His was supposed to be the “been there, done that” generation;
but in truth these kids would never run out of new places to go
and new things to do. In 1998 it was an interesting world in which to be
seventeen.
The Day his Life Changed
This web site is dedicated to
Jeff's second violent birth in 1998. While at a Fourth of July party, Jeff dove
into a swimming pool, and broke his neck. Suddenly he was one of thousands
of Americans each year who become victims of a sport-related Spinal
Cord Injury (SCI). Jeff was reborn into a strange new world known as
quadriplegia. He was paralyzed, unable
to move or feel anything below his neck. Unable even to breathe without
mechanical assistance. He took his last natural breath before he hit the
water.
Through persistence, hard work,
and technology, Jeff slowly regained some of his functional
abilities, especially the capacity to communicate, and to control his
environment.
This site won’t tell you all
there is to know about Jeffrey, because like every other disabled person,
Jeffrey is more than his paralysis. This web site is intended to be
informative, entertaining, and helpful; but if you’re looking for
everything Jeff is, you won’t find it here. You'll have to send him an
e-mail, or get in touch some other way. Feel
free to do so.
You will learn at this site about the causes of spinal cord injury; some
of the medical techniques used to combat it; and some of the technology
Jeff uses to make his way in the world despite his limitations.
And you can link to
Rescuing Jeffrey,
an emotional book written by his father, that tells the story
of the first ten days following the accident, during which it was not
clear that Jeff would survive -- because his parents were not sure
that they would let him.
Your
visit to this site may be more than casual. You may be here because
someone you know -- possibly someone you love -- has been injured, and you
are scouring the world for encouragement, and answers to questions you
don’t even know how to ask yet. Well, you won’t find any cures here; but
you may find some clues to survival. |
