Vinny Integlia

Life dealt two swift blows to Vinny Integlia. But this inspiring Mayo Clinic patient responded by sharing important lessons of life with school children. Vinny consults with Mayo physician Dr. Richard Hayden.

Thirty years ago, a playful run on the beach and a dive into open ocean left Vinny Integlia a C5-C6 quadriplegic. The angle of his impact with the water tragically broke his neck. Suddenly, at 18, the aspiring musician and athlete was using a wheelchair for life.

"The hardest thing was depending on other people for many things," says Vinny, 48, a native of Newport, R.I.

Slowly, he fought back. With the help of family and health professionals, Vinny increasingly reclaimed parts of his life. He attended college, developed graphic arts skills, mastered a specially equipped van and held a professional position at a local hospital.

But after moving with his parents to Tucson in 2004, Vinny developed a stubborn sinus infection that simply refused to go away. Within weeks, he began to lose feeling in his upper lip and a worrisome lump developed under his left eye.

Originally his condition was diagnosed as shingles, but when the lump failed to respond to medication, a second Tucson physician was consulted and made the correct diagnosis. It was then Vinny learned he had squamous cell carcinoma. The diagnosing physician quickly steered Vinny to Dr. Richard Hayden, an otorhinolaryngologist at Mayo Clinic in Arizona.

Cancer claims an eye

After long years of adapting to the abrupt loss of 70 percent of his mobility, Vinny was again left facing a challenge. Complex surgery to remove the cancer saved his life, but it left him without his left eye and sinus.

Vinny later said of Hayden, "Through it all, he was the positive voice in the wilderness. The man saved my life. What else can you say?"

Complicating life even more, Vinny's remaining eye was troubled by a pre-existing condition that fragmented his vision. He can still legally drive, but his journeys are restricted to familiar, local destinations.

With the array of disabilities he lives with, working a full-time job is virtually impossible. Each morning begins with a two-hour routine of personal tasks and medical necessities to prepare him for the day ahead. Each evening, another two hours is required to prepare him for the coming night.

Not only does Vinny deal with the impairment of his mobility and sight, he also struggles with related complications such as breathing, blood pressure and other body functions. Claustrophobia and panic attacks are now daily tribulations, and heat has emerged as a major enemy.

"You realize what the quality of your life means when you lose your body, then lose your eye," says Vinny. "Most people don't realize how fragile life is."

The overwhelming health challenges are not the end of Vinny's story, however. Rather, they are the beginning.

As a direct result of the battles he has faced his entire adult life, Vinny Integlia has been inspired to help others overcome challenges in their own lives. He maintains a Web site, theartofsurvival.net, and speaks to school children and adult organizations to share the lessons he's learned from life.

Utilize What You Have

"My message to kids is to utilize what you have and share it with others," Vinny says. "Make yourself the best you can be ... and never give up."

Thus far, Vinny has spoken to nearly a thousand people, most of them students in local schools. "I love talking to kids," he says, "because they're at that age where they're so impressionable."

Helping him at his presentations is Kim, his fiancée, whom he met more than a year ago on an Internet Christian dating site. Always a very social person, Vinny even found a way to bring romance to his new life.

How has he managed to remain so positive and active in the face of such physical discomfort and inconvenience?

"I attribute it to the way my family is and the way I was brought up," he says. "I was very lucky. My mother is a very strong woman and I've drawn great strength from her." His mother also has been active in forming a foundation to help raise funds for spinal cord research.

In addition to his parents and siblings, Vinny professes great respect for Christopher Reeve, the actor paralyzed in a 1995 riding accident who successfully drew media attention to the need for more research into spinal injuries.

"What made me admire him is that he didn't have to do it," says Vinny.

That sounds a lot like Vinny Integlia himself.