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A Brave New World • It was one of those special summer days when the sun starts shining early in the morning, the breezes are cool and soothing, the clouds glide through the blue, blue sky — and nobody within a 60-mile radius feels like working. The people in Ray’s office were no exception. Since they’d all spent the last week working long hours to get caught up with the inventory, the boss decided to let everybody off early. With a whoop and a holler, Ray and his pals jumped into his pickup and raced to the local gravel pit that had recently been turned into a lake. They couldn’t wait to take a dip into the cool, clear water and float on their backs, the sun on their faces. It took only seconds for Ray to strip down to his trunks, race to a ledge 6 feet above the water, and dive headfirst into the shimmering water below. A beat. Two sec onds. One minute passed. Five minutes. Where was Ray? He hadn’t surfaced. His friends swam out to the spot where Ray had disappeared and then dragged his limp body out and up the side of the lake. He was unconscious; his head had struck a large rock unseen from above. He had what we call a fracture to the C5 vertebra. Ray couldn’t move his arms or legs; he had broken his neck. Within a week, thanks to emergency room care and successful neurosurgery, Ray could feel a tingle in his arms; he could shrug his shoulders and move his upper arms. But he would need months of rehabilitation — and would use a wheelchair for the rest of his life. If only he had remembered the diver’s rule: “Feet first, first time.” • It was an incident that played over and over again in Betty’s mind. She had been working late, trying to finish a deadline, one stormy New England night. She was the last one to leave the office and the snow had begun to fall in clusters; she could barely see her car in the deserted parking lot. Betty almost slipped as she walked over hidden icy patches, but she somehow managed to get behind the wheel, the wipers on, and the heat going full steam. She slowly, slowly drove her car out of the lot; she wasn’t a reckless driver and she wasn’t going to rush anywhere in this storm. But conditions worsened. The storm had turned into a blizzard, complete with icy wind, swirling snow, and piling drifts. Suddenly, without warning, Betty hit a patch of ice on the highway and lost control of the car. It spun to the side and hit a cement barrier head on. Crash! Betty felt as if a load of bricks had hit her chest and back; she struggled to breathe. When an EMS crew arrived and carried her from the car, Betty realized she couldn’t move her legs; she couldn’t feel them. An X-ray subsequently revealed a burst fracture in her lumbar region at the L1 veterbra. The result? A loss of bladder and bowel control, and the use of her legs. Although surgery removed the bony fragments that had strangled these nerves, Betty needed rehabilitation. Over time, she learned to walk with braces, but she would always have problems controlling her bowels and bladder. Yet Betty felt lucky. She had survived a terrible storm — and she was alive. 1