|
Article from Austin Magazine
September 1984 Issue
by
Jody LaRaine Grega
It began as any other lazy midsummer's day, but fate
ensured that July 29, 1982, was a date that Gary Seghi
would remember. He clinched the deal on his new home,
in a sleepy town midway between Dallas and the Louisiana
border where he was serving his internship as a doctor
of chiropractic. It was also just two weeks before the
national bicycling championships and shortly after he
had been featured on the television program PM
Magazine. For the previous three years, he had won the
Texas Road Racing Championship, and he was seeded to win
the 1982 national title as well. According to his
rigorous training schedule, Thursday was one of his
"easy" days, and he set out for a leisurely 50-mile ride
after signing the house contract.
Four hours later, he was tolling up an easy grade on his
favorite racing bike. From behind him came bearing down
an 18-wheel tractor/trailer, later estimated from skid
marks to be speeding between 70 and 80 miles per hour,
loaded with cattle for market. The rig smashed into him
from behind, with such force that an imprint of his body
was left on the grill of the cab, then he was dragged
under the truck until the vehicle stopped. In the
course of mere seconds, in a fated encounter of two
oddly-matched vehicles on a country road, a robust
athlete was swiftly transformed into a paralytic.
The
physicians who pumped 22 pints of blood into Dr. Gary
Seghi in the emergency room that Thursday afternoon
frankly expected him to die. Initial diagnosis: a
commuted fracture of the tibia that shattered his knee,
dislocated and fractured hips, spine, ribs, and a
deflated lung. Prognosis: irreversible damage that
warranted amputation of the leg if he lived.
"It was the first thing they say," recalls Seghi. "I
was devastated when I was told my leg should be cut
off. I refused to believe my leg would be missing. As
far as I was concerned, there was no question about
getting better."
His basic approach was to eat well and get back on his
feet. He refused to eat the hospital food, and instead
placed himself on a strict regimen of raw, whole foods
supplemented with high concentrations of minerals and
vitamins. Although he was paralyzed during the month
following the accident—his 22-inch thighs shrinking to
the diameter of his arms—Seghi began to recover,
undaunted by an average of two operations per week
during his ten-week hospital stay.
“When I started moving my toes, at about three weeks
(after the accident), the physicians realized I hadn’t
severed the sciatic nerve.” Talk of amputation ceased,
but because of the trauma to his left knee, Seghi was
advised by the doctors to allow his knee to be fused
surgically, to spare him the increased pain of the
natural fusion they said would inevitably occur within
two years. Every orthopedic specialist he visited
across the country held the same opinion.
Two years later Seghi could walk and flex his left knee
nearly 30 degrees. The new prognosis in 1985 was that
the joint would fuse in five years or be rendered
useless by arthritic pain. But the fierce lines of
determination etched around his searing blue eyes make
an observer question that prognosis. Gary Seghi has
made a habit of beating the odds.
“It was amazing he lived through it,” admits Willie Coy,
former chief United States Cycling Federation official.
“I don’t think a lot of people would have. The only
reason he lived was that he was in excellent physical
condition and (had a ) desire to survive. He’s
determined to recover as much as he can and not let it
get in the way of the rest of his life.”
Seghi, a 1979 graduate of the Palmer College of
Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa, is determined not only
to get on with his life but also to share the experience
of his recovery with others. The San Francisco native
founded the West Austin Neck/Back and Joint Clinic
located in an airy, comfortable older house on West
Sixth Street.
“From my accident,” he claims, “I know what pain is—I
experience it every day. I know what it is like to go
through withdrawal from powerful pain medication. And
when I talk to my patients about pain, depression, and
their frustration about their fear of being permanently
disabled, I can relate to their anxiety.”
In addition to his full-time practice, Seghi has served
as president of the Travis County Chiropractic
Association and of the Texas Olympic Development
Organization. This year he was appointed as consulting
physician to the United States Olympic Training Camp in
Austin.
Last spring, for the first time since his accident, Gary
Seghi attempted to ride a bicycle. “My leg became so
swollen I had to stop, but recently I’ve been swimming
laps at Deep Eddy Pool. I’m stressing the leg and
finding its limits—not to push it beyond those limits
but to take it (up) to its current limits.”
Many of us defined and accepted our own limits long
ago. Gary Seghi is one Austinite who is still striving
to find his.
Post Script: From Austin Magazine
September 1994 Issue
by
Jody LaRaine Grega
In the fall of 1987, Dr. Seghi was finally able to
exercise again on his bike. For five years he could
only stretch, exercise was too painful. Five surgeries
later, he was back in action. On his first club ride
since 1982 he was in a multiple rider accident. He
broke his thigh bone and after another surgery was back
on his bike in two months.
After a total of twelve years of self directed
rehabilitation, Dr. Seghi won the 1994 USCF Southern
United States Cycling Regional Road Racing Championship,
as well as a National Stage Race, and placed 3rd
in both the Texas State Road and Criterium
Championships. Not bad for a fifty year old man!
“Success was the end result of nothing more than what I
ask of my patients: to be committed for the long haul,
be consistent and progressive in reaching for goals.
Your body will respond, it wants to be healthy.”
Gary Seghi is one Austinite who has shown all of us how strong the influence
of our will and spirit truly is in the healing process.
“I’m convinced that you can meet any challenge if you
remember that the line that separates the possible from
the impossible moves as soon as you change your
attitude.
|
