In May of 1997, I was 37, life changed dramatically for me. I was the General Manager for an Environmental Company and was working 5 days a week in Jacksonville, Florida while my wife and children lived in Tampa. I would come home on Friday night and return to Jacksonville Monday morning.

We had an interesting job going on. Our company was dredging a lagoon at a paper mill and taking the gunk we dredged up to a nearby forest and tilling it into the soil as fertilizer. There was lots of heavy equipment involved and many workers. One afternoon I was supervising a crew of laborers who where making a turn around area in the forest so the big vehicles delivering the product to be tilled into the ground, would have a solid surface to turn around on. We were spreading a layer of clay on the ground and ran out of it in order to complete the days work. There were two dump trucks on site and I asked the laborers if they would stay and wait for two more loads of clay. They agreed. Being short on drivers , I jumped in one truck and another driver in the second. He followed me out of the forest and onto the main road heading for the borrow pit.

Two miles down the road, my left front tire came apart and it pulled my vehicle into an oncoming, fully loaded, semi truck. With no time to react, the two trucks slammed into each other head on. I was thrown from my truck and one of the few recollections I have was someone trying to drag me away from the wreckage. I couldn't open my eyes but told them to be careful as I thought my legs were broken. They told me it was necessary to move me as both trucks were on fire. Little did I know that both of my feet had been severed in the accident.

After several operations both of my legs were amputated 5 inches below my knees. I also developed osteomyelitis ( a severe bone infection) in my left leg and had to have many operations to help fight that. Within the next year, I had a total of 16 operations before I could begin learning to walk again.