Anthony's Recovery: One Step at a Time
Hi, my name is Becca, and I'm fundraising for my brother-in-law, Anthony Giacinto. The money raised will be given to his mother, Rebecca Giacinto, and will be used to provide medical care, home renovations, mobility equipment, and—with any luck—activity-based physical therapy for Anthony.
Anthony is just 19. He's an athlete, a talented musician, and an all-around wonderful person who is ambitious, playful, and compassionate beyond his years. He’s a former Boy Scout from Los Gatos Troop 539. He has a lovely girlfriend, a tight knit group of friends, and the type of great relationships with his family members that you thought only existed in the movies.
Anthony is fiercely independent and had been loving his time away from home to study at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he was seeking a bachelor's degree in communications and a minor in Italian to celebrate his family's heritage. While away at college, Anthony was also working part-time as a lifeguard and had hopes of starting his own water polo team in the future.
On July 3rd, Anthony was enjoying a holiday weekend at the beach with his friends, when a single event changed the course of his life forever.
He was body surfing in waist-deep water, wading out into the ocean, but when he ducked under one of the waves, the timing and force of the water was enough to bury him headfirst into the sand, leaving him trapped underwater and paralyzed from a broken neck.
What happened next was nothing less than a series of small miracles that saw Anthony safely rescued from the water by vigilant onlookers and almost immediately airlifted to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.
Despite the nature of Anthony's injury, he emerged from emergency surgery with no signs of brain damage, and much to the delight (and chagrin) of his family and myself, he seemed to be very much the same clever, wisecracking kid we all know and love so dearly. Only now, he was living in a paralyzed body.
During his extended stay in the hospital, Anthony has regained the ability to breathe, eat, and move parts of his upper body without assistance. Unfortunately, he has little sensation and currently no function of his lower body, but Anthony continues to show incredible courage, determination, and eagerness to get to work in physical therapy.
His long road to recovery is already underway at Valley Med's intensive spinal cord injury rehab facility, where he is slowly learning to regain motor control of his hands, sit up without support, control his own wheelchair, and adapt to a new kind of daily life.
After these long, hard weeks of occupational therapy, Anthony's family hopes to send him to Craig Hospital: an ultramodern physical therapy institute in Englewood, Colorado that could give Anthony a real chance to get back on his feet.
Unfortunately, there have already been several lapses in insurance coverage in the short time since Anthony’s accident, and it is unclear whether Kaiser will even approve to cover the bare minimum amount of physical therapy that Anthony was prescribed at Valley Med. In any case, it is obvious that any additional activity-based therapy—such the kind provided by Craig Hospital—would be incredibly expensive and uncovered by insurance.
In the meantime, Anthony’s family is preparing for his homecoming by securing a converted mobility van that can accommodate a wheelchair and rushing construction on their home to make it more accessible. The price of uncovered medical care or additional physical therapy aside, a new vehicle and major construction come with a staggering list of out-of-pocket costs, most of which will only pay for short-term solutions to the very real and long-term concern of Anthony’s health, quality of life, and independence.
I am reaching out to you on behalf of Anthony, an optimistic teenager with a whole lot of life left to live, to give him and his family the best chance they could possibly have to heal in the wake of this life-changing event.
Thank you.
