I had a DUI accident on September 6th 1998, 1 month after turning 21. This left me a C5/C6 complete quadriplegic.
I spent 3 months in the hospital and finally got home a day before Christmas. By home I mean my parents living room
after enjoying the freedoms of having my own apartment, car, and life. After only a month at home I was back in the
hospital after a cerebral hemorrhage due to pro longed AH. After 6 weeks I returned to my parents house where I lived
with my Mom and girlfriend, from pre-injury, for four years.
I began attending classes at Harrisburg Area Community
College in the fall of '99, it took me awhile but in the spring of '03 I graduated with an Associates degree in computer support.
In January '03 my girlfriend and I moved to Harrisburg and got married in May. After looking for employment for a year
at the end of summer '04 I decided to return to school, this time to Central Pennsylvania College to study in the Bachelor
degree program for Multimedia and Internet Production. It was also during this time that I was teamed with my service
dog, a two year old yellow lab named Freedom.
In the fall of '04 I got pneumonia and a blood infection and was
hospitalized for 2 weeks. Shortly after returning home to Harrisburg me and my wife got separated and I returned to
live with my mom. By the spring of '05, after 7 years of being disabled and feeling nothing from the chest down I had
developed neuropathic pains throughout my body.
Today I live in Elizabethville in the down stairs of my Mom's house.
I have 2 terms left until my internship through school and then I will graduate at the end of next summer. Upon graduation
I hope to find a Webmaster position somewhere in the Harrisburg area. If you would like to view some of my work I have
my school work posted at
http://www.davegrotzinger.com.
