S3 E2 - Rise To The Occasion With Jeanine Valenti

On Black Friday, November 23, 2001 at 2:00 in the afternoon, Jeanine Valenti kissed her 3 young children goodbye and headed off to a colleague's mother's wake. Unbeknownst to her, a driver on the other side of the road had fallen asleep at the wheel, causing him to cross traffic and t-bone her car. Jeanine's irresponsibly engineered SUV flipped leaving her a C6-C7 quadriplegic. She spent 1 month in the ICU followed by 4 months at Kessler Institute For Rehabilitation, putting her mind and body back together. Now an employee at Kessler, Jeanine runs the Think First program, is a featured lecturer in its Lunch and Learn series, and is a valued mentor to many newly injured patients. As if that weren't enough, she has just written a book called: "Rise To The Occasion", which will be published shortly. Truth be told, Jeanine is my colleague and friend. She also happens to be my guest on this week's episode of The QuadCast.