Preface
This is a book about optimism and hope. The stories in it are about people who have
courageously overcome adversity and whose lives have been improved through resourcefulness and
creativity. In many ways, this reflects my own personality and the philosophy of my profession of
occupational therapy. I believe that every problem has a solution, and we just have not discovered
the best one yet for those problems still unsolved; that not only is the glass half full, but
refills are on the way. When people tell me that "those who can keep their heads when all about
them are losing theirs just don’t understand the gravity of the situation," my response is
that only those who can keep their heads—and find a ray of hope—can ultimately fix the
grave situation. I believe that even if we cannot control the circumstances we are in, we can
control our reaction to those circumstances and can turn tragedy into triumph with our own strength
and with the help of others.
My optimism was sorely tested on September 11, 2001. As a New Yorker whose office faced the
World Trade Center, less than a mile away, I watched in horrified shock and disbelief as the Twin
Towers burned and then collapsed. I saw and smelled the smoke. My horror was deeply personal as
well as generalized. On my way to work that fateful morning, I had witnessed the attack from the
street corner as I exited the subway at 9:05 a.m. and saw both Towers already in flames. The
two-block walk to my office from that corner became a nightmare of fear: my son’s office was
on the 30th floor of Tower Two, and I did not know if he was already there and, if so, whether he
would be able to escape from the burning building.
Thankfully, he was one of the lucky people. He had not yet arrived at his office and was thus
spared a terrifying escape from the burning buildings, or an even worse fate. I learned later that
he had been two blocks away when Tower Two collapsed, and that he had managed to take refuge in a
small storefront restaurant to escape the choking clouds of ash and dust and the panicking crowds.
At the time, however, I had an unforgettably anxious 2 hours, not knowing where he was, before he
was able to find a working pay phone and call. He spent the next 4 hours walking the six miles to
his home.
This book was in the last stages of completion on September 11, 2001. I must admit that the
tragedy affected me deeply. Perhaps it was because of my family’s close escape; perhaps
because I work daily in New York and saw the devastation first hand; perhaps because, like all
Americans, I lived with the nonstop television coverage of the event for days afterwards; perhaps
because, like most human beings, I simply could not comprehend the magnitude of the crime or the
extent of the loss.
It was difficult for me to resume life and work as usual, and particularly challenging to
continue to compile and edit these stories—stories about individual people who overcame
adversity, unconnected to the tragedy. The people and the stories seemed not to reflect the
immediacy and immense scope of the disaster.
As an occupational therapist, I believe in the power of "doing." To cope with the tragedy and
to contribute to the recovery, I needed to act. So I volunteered my time, donated funds, read
articles about the heroes and the victims, and examined the photographs. I attended tributes to
heroes and visited street corner and police station and firehouse memorials, and I began collecting
more stories, two of which appear in this book. These activities were and continue to be very
satisfying and helpful to me.
Ultimately, however, it was resuming work on this book with its message of hope that was the
most powerful and important activity that helped me begin to heal and to recapture my optimism. I
came to realize that these stories, about the large and small miracles of life, about the courage
and creativity of individuals, about the ability to recover from disaster, were exactly what I
needed to begin my healing process. These stories represent the wonder, joy, and hope that makes
life worth living. They are the embodiment of life and the future. They make it possible to go on,
to hope, and to continue to face the future with optimism. In gratitude for the ability to be
comforted by these stories and what they represent, and to continue my efforts to help others
recover from individual and community tragedies, I will be donating a portion of the profits from
this book to organizations that help people cope with adversity.
In this time of national need for healing, I hope that reading these stories and learning
about the resourcefulness and optimism of the people in this book will help others heal as well. I
offer them to you with my optimistic wish that they help you as they helped me.
Deborah R. Labovitz, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA
New York, March 2002
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Introduction
These are the stories of ordinary people whose lives have been saved in seemingly miraculous
ways. Some very special people helped them not only to survive, but to cope with life-threatening
catastrophes and terrible circumstances and make it through tough times. This book is about hope
and about how people can work with what happens to them to take charge of their future.
Catastrophes occur with unexpected swiftness, and in an instant can change our lives forever.
Other difficult or even dreadful circumstances may develop slowly, but relentlessly, and over time
can change our lives forever.
But do miracles that save us ever happen in ordinary life? Ask Brett Duffey.
On that breezy spring evening in 1989 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 20-year-old Brett, a
Marine air traffic controller on leave, was enjoying vacationing with his dad in a posh high-rise
hotel overlooking the beach. When he stepped out onto the balcony of his 12th-story room to view
the sunset, he noticed some attractive young ladies on the balcony two floors above him and leaned
out to exchange friendly greetings. As he was talking, his foot slipped and the 6’ 3",
250-pound Marine lost his balance and plummeted through space, 12 stories down to the ground
below.
Obviously, Brett knew in that split second as he plunged from the balcony that his life was
over. So casually, so quickly, so incredibly impossibly! He had only intended to watch the sunset
and flirt with some cute girls, and now he was going to die. And yet, miraculously, Brett did not
die. He landed... with 16 broken bones and a closed head injury that left him in a coma for 6
weeks... but alive. Brett literally hit bottom.
And then what happened?
Ten years ago he was given a 5% chance of survival. Today he is a college graduate and a
father with an exciting new career. Brett credits his miraculous recovery to the incredible hard
work, motivation, creativity, and resourcefulness of his rehabilitation team, especially the
occupational therapists. How was Brett able to rise again to live, love, and learn? When you read
Brett’s story, you will find out how his occupational therapists helped save the day.
The true stories in this book are about miracles that happen to ordinary people. Some of these
miracles are large and highly dramatic events: surviving a plane crash, a bus bombing, or a
landmine explosion. Others involve courageous recoveries from sudden tragedies: diving accidents,
drive-by shootings, automobile accidents, or Brett’s fall from a 12-story balcony. Sometimes
the miracles are important achievements: moving about in a powered wheelchair, driving an adapted
car, riding a horse, or returning to work. And still other miracles are small and quiet events:
regaining the ability to play with toys, speaking and communicating with others, or even tying
shoes after an accident, an illness, or a developmental problem has made those things virtually
impossible. The people whose experiences these were believe in miracles.
Consider what Katherine and Frank Mayer know about miracles. In August 1996, the Mayer family
was anticipating a fun-filled vacation, but as they loaded the family car outside their suburban
New Jersey home, their excitement turned to horror. Jason, one of their 4-year-old twins, lost
control of his Big Wheel on their sloping driveway and rolled into the street in front of an
oncoming truck. It happened so quickly that Justin, Jason’s terrified twin brother, and the
rest of the family could only watch helplessly as Jason and the Big Wheel were dragged 55 feet
underneath the truck. Finally, Jason’s dad, Frank, managed to jump the fence, run down the
street, catch up with the truck, and get the driver to stop.
Jason’s mom, Katherine, was sure that Jason was dead, snatched away from the family in
that split second between enjoying the sunshine as he played in front of the house and his plunge
into the street. But miraculously, Jason did not die. His battered body with its extensive injuries
was airlifted to a specialized children’s hospital where the expert medical team saved his
life several times over the next 3 weeks.
Months of therapy helped Jason regain the skills he lost in the accident. How did this happen?
Jason’s remarkable recovery was engineered by his occupational therapist. She creatively
used Justin, Jason’s twin, as her most effective therapeutic tool to motivate Jason to
participate in the painful but necessary rehabilitation activities. How she did this, and why the
Mayer family considers it a special miracle, is one of the inspirational stories you are about to
read.
Miracles can happen to everyone, to famous and to ordinary people. Sometimes they occur under
extraordinary and at other times routine circumstances. All of the miracles in this book share one
thing in common—success. All of these stories are tributes to the ability of people to triumph
over adversity and to succeed when life is hardest.
While all the stories deal with successful solutions to problems, success means different
things to different people. For some, the success was the first step on the road to recovery. For
others, it was achieving their highest lifetime goals despite having some disability. For some, the
success was living a productive, happy, or meaningful life in their last years, months, or even
days. For others just starting out, success involved the accomplishment of tasks that unlocked
barriers and made possible the beginning of a productive, happy, or meaningful life.
In this book you will meet 96 remarkable people—people born with disabling conditions,
people who got sick, people who became injured, people who grew old. They all required help to
learn or relearn the skills needed for the "job of living," and they all received that help from an
occupational therapist. In turn, they improved at doing their own jobs of living.
How did this happen? Could it happen to you or me? And what does any of this have to do with
miracles?
The lives of the people in these stories have been changed by the chance to learn—or
relearn—the skills they needed for their own jobs of living, no matter what, no matter where,
no matter how. You will be amazed at their courage, energized by their achievements, and awed at
the miracles they have managed to accomplish with a little bit of help from occupational therapy.
Their examples will inspire you and reassure you that successfully surmounting seemingly
insurmountable obstacles is possible for all of us when faced with adversity. Who are these
remarkable people, and who are the occupational therapists who entered their lives and had such a
profound impact?
These powerful vignettes, written by the people who had the experiences, their families, or
their occupational therapists, illustrate the ways in which ordinary and famous individuals
surmount the seemingly insurmountable, defy the odds, and redesign their lives to achieve
meaningful fulfillment following what could have been a life-shattering event. These episodes
recount the large and small miracles of healing and adapting made possible when courage is combined
with resourcefulness, creativity, and an indomitable will to succeed. Some will bring a tear to
your eye; some will bring a smile to your lips. All will inspire you with the knowledge that, as
the people in the stories discovered, ordinary miracles do happen. You will read about people whose
stories are the stuff of high drama:
- Rambo, an El Salvadorian national soccer star whose feet were amputated after a wartime
landmine explosion
- Cruz, a young man paralyzed from the neck down by a random drive-by gang shooting
- Karen, a doctoral candidate who was plunged into confusion and unbearable head pain
when a truck plowed into her car
There are others in the book whose rehabilitation started with small but nonetheless important
things: - 83-year-old Mrs. S, newly moved into a nursing home, who could not find a satisfying
place for herself in it after having taken care of her family all her life
- Aaron, a 61-year-old businessman recovering from a stroke, whose dream was to walk his
daughter down the aisle at her wedding
- Bob who needed a way to continue to live with his aging dog, Barney, despite
Barney’s problems with managing his daily backyard activities
You will see how babies and children get a good start in life: - 6-month-old Fayda, whose weakened body kept her from using her hands to manipulate her
toys and play with her older siblings
- 15-month-old Sam, who needed to be kept perfectly still for several days until his
spinal surgery began to heal
- 2-year-old Jack, whose tiny hands had stiffened into tight fists from an unknown
cause
- 3-year-old Cecilia, whose body was "frozen" in strange positions and who was also
completely unable to speak
- 2½-year-old Erin, who had a stroke while still in the uterus before birth, who
followed the therapeutic paws of Max, the therapy cat who lives and works in a childrens’
occupational therapy clinic
If you do not know what the profession of occupational therapy is, or what an occupational
therapist does, read on. You will find out about the many ways that people learned the skills for
their job of living from occupational therapists who entered their lives after an illness, injury,
birth condition, emotional problem, or the normal aging process made it necessary for them to have
help with their daily tasks of life.
Some of the occupational therapy encounters were quite short—just enough time to help the
people learn to do something that was really important to them. Other occupational therapy lasted
weeks, months, or even years, as people’s changing abilities and needs required redefinition
of the goals of their continuing occupational therapy treatments.
In the array of stories of the many different people and their varying needs and solutions can
be found the essence of occupational therapy: treating whole people within the context of their
family and their environment to help them build the skills they need for the job of living their
lives.
The people who have experienced this remarkable treatment and its results believe in
miracles.
So, are other miracles really possible? And if so, under what circumstances? These stories
confirm that the answer is a resounding yes when a spirit that refuses to capitulate to hardship
combines with the informed ingenuity of the caring professional occupational therapist.
Adversity can happen to any of us. But these stories reflect the positive side of life and can
provide hope to any people who now have problems, give insight to those who have family or friends
in similar situations, and inspire confidence in all of us.
There is no right or wrong way to read this book. Some of you may choose to read it straight
through from beginning to end. Others may be searching for particular stories that speak to some
event in their life or the life of someone they know. In order to decide how to proceed, it may be
helpful to know how the stories in the book are arranged.
The book is divided into three parts. In Part One, Journey Through Life, you will be
introduced to people at various stages in their lives—infants and children and their parents,
teenagers, adults, and senior citizens who have successfully met some of the challenges and
overcome some of the obstacles that are not uncommon to particular phases of life.
Accidents, traumas, and catastrophes, however, are indiscriminate and rarely respect age and
stages of life. In Part Two, Life’s Unpredictable Events, you will meet people whose common
link is the way in which they coped with such life-altering events outside their control.
Finally, in Part Three, Retrospectives, you will get to know people who have learned to live
productive lives and can look back at years of accomplishment despite lifelong health conditions
and challenges.Whichever approach you choose, read on to enjoy the company of these remarkable
people.
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Catastrophes can occur with unexpected swiftness and in an instant change our lives forever.
Illnesses and other misfortunes may develop slowly over time and they too may change our lives
forever. But the story does not have to end there. With the help of some very special people —
occupational therapists — there is hope, and miracles do happen.