paralysis

When Jeffrey Morse visited his doctor on an ordinary day in 2012, he could not have imagined that what began as a headache would swiftly spiral into an aneurism, a dissected artery, and a spinal stroke. The old Jeffrey--a flight engineer, Air Force reservist, and avid scuba diver--died on the operating table that day. The new Jeffrey awoke from surgery paralyzed from the neck down. But Jeffrey had never been the sort to give up. Despite immense pain, depression, anxiety, and doctors who claimed he would never recover, he swore he would walk out of that hospital. Through rigorous therapy, determination, optimism, humor, and support, he not only accomplished that goal but has since recovered the use of nearly all his muscles and gone on to greater adventures than ever.

In the early evening on October 1, 2003, Christina Crosby was 3 miles into a 17 mile bicycle ride, intent on reaching her goal of 1000 miles for the…