Dallas Resident Writes #1 Nonfiction Bestselling Book On Amazon

The Power of Hope, Perseverance, Persistence and Resilience:

Here's a summary of my burn injury story -
which will read like fiction. I had graduated from Dartmouth College, earned my MBA from
Northwestern University/Kellogg School and was working for a top, commercial real
estate developer. Then this: About 30 years ago, I was severely burned over 80% of my
body, and my emergency-room doctors in Dallas (The University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center) told my family I had no chance of
surviving. But, thanks to the hard work of two of the most gifted
burn doctors in the world and an incredible desire to survive -
which we all possess - I started to turn the corner after a few days
in the Intensive Care Unit. I must not forget to thank the brave men and
women of the Dallas Fire Department who stabilized me and
brought me to Parkland Hospital.

Fast forward two years and eighteen major surgeries later, I was back on my feet
and stronger than ever. My first wife had left for greener pastures (she did leave
$300), but I still had my loyal and faithful Yellow Labrador
Retriever. Sparky was with me through the 24 months of very
painful and rigorous physical therapy, and she will always hold an
extremely special place in my heart. She lived for fifteen and one-half years.

I was perfectly healthy for the next year and a half, but then lightning struck
again. I came down with some sort of neuromuscular disease which caused more
pain than the burn injuries. Doctors were baffled, because they all said
they had never seen anything like it. Once again I was told I was
going to die, because my nervous and muscular systems were self
destructing simultaneously. On the inside, I was saying "You've
got to be kidding me - not again!". The pain was truly impossible to
describe, but I kept fighting as long as I could. The head of the
Texas Neurological Society told me he thought my illness was
some sort of new disease, and no one has ever been able to put a
name on it. It very well could have been a complication from my extensive burn injuries
and numerous surgeries.

We'll fast forward two years again, and, by then, the
illness had finally left my system. These two, near-death
experiences took more than four years of my life from me (and
wiped me out financially), but I'm much stronger mentally and
physically as a result of living through these ordeals. I met many
amazing medical professionals and patients along the way (including the amazing Dr.
Rod J. Rohrich), and there is so much more to my story than the details I've provided
here. Two years in a Burn Compression Suit, going bankrupt, standing in an
unemployment line, etc. These stories will have to wait for another day.

I'm definitely not Mark Cuban, but I do have a
story that is unique and - hopefully - inspiring to others.
No matter what difficulty you're facing (or will face), you do have the power
inside you to persevere and make it to the other side of a serious setback.
The main takeaway from my story is that any major comeback in life may require a
significant amount of time to accomplish, as well as a laser-like focus on your ultimate
goal. Following my burn injury, I had to go to physical therapy at the hospital every
day for a year, and then it took another year of self-guided workouts to totally recover
and regain the full use of both of my arms. I also had eleven surgeries during this period
and each surgery required a seven-day stay in the hospital (and I wasn't allowed to
leave my bed while hospitalized). You must fight through the pain and push back
against any thoughts of quitting, because anything less than 100% success is not
acceptable. It's not easy to carry this positive attitude day after day, but you
will never experience a greater feeling of joy than the moment you realize you've finally
reached the finish line. I now enjoy tremendous health and the world's-greatest son, so
the long journey was well worth it. Life is worth fighting for!

I intended on writing about these events many years ago, but I decided to wait for
the "right time". First, though, I had to answer the obvious question: "Why did I
survive?", "Why was my life spared?" I am a religious person, so help from above was
certainly a possibility, but there were many individuals I met in the burn unit who
seemed more worthy of a miracle than me. Was I destined to do something incredibly
special that would help make the world a better place? Well, that hasn't happened yet, so
I hope my story will give at least one person the strength to persevere through their
unique hardship.

The key to my story happened one day during my initial, two-month
stay in the intensive care unit. I was about one week away from being discharged when
both of my burn doctors arrived in my room. They stood at the end of the bed, and it
seemed like they had some sort of bad news to deliver. I was right. They were usually
very jovial, but today their mood was quite somber. They told me I had somewhere
between a 7% to 10% chance of ever being able to lift my arms more than a few
degrees past the sides of my body. I had already undergone five surgeries, and I believed
I was safely on my way to a full recovery, so this news came out of the blue and was a
complete shock. I had trouble moving in my bed, but I leaned forward as far as I could,
and I told them: "This isn't acceptable!". I began to explain why I was angry when both
doctors started to smile. I didn't understand, so I asked them why their demeanor
suddenly changed. They then told me their visit with bad news (which was true) was a
test to see how I would react to what would certainly be viewed as a catastrophic
prognosis. They had to deliver unpleasant information like this to burn patients every
day, so they knew what the typical response would be. They told me over 90% of
patients would begin to cry and give up. They wanted to see if I had the "fight in
me" which would be necessary to endure eleven more surgeries and many
additional months of rigorous physical therapy and workouts. I told them I was
ready for the surgeries and all the hard work, and I promised to return in a year and
dunk a basketball for them to see. They laughed and said that's all they needed to
hear. I never did go back to visit them (and I can't dunk - even though I'm six feet, four
inches tall), but I did regain the full use of both my arms a few centimeters per day. I'm
not Superman, but I did (and still do) have an incredibly strong desire to survive. I also
have a very good sense of humor, which was extremely helpful during some of the
bleakest periods. Like anything in life, there is no perfect "right time". If you want to
accomplish something, do it now, and do it better than anyone else has ever done it.
Never Give Up!

I have now written a book about my journey: "Blue Sky Lightning: How To Survive And Thrive When Life Blindsides You". It is available on Amazon Books via: BlueSkyBolt.com
All The Best To My Fellow Burn Survivors and God Bless Texas!

"If you had not suffered as you have, there would be no depth to you as a human being, no humility, no compassion." -Eckhart Tolle