Capt. Greg Galeazzi had been deployed to Afghanistan for a year when it happened. He was a month away from returning home when a roadside bomb severed his legs and most of his right arm from his body.
“It felt like I was an empty coke can on train tracks getting hit by a freight train moving at 100 miles per hour,” Galeazzi told ABC News.
Since there was no medic on the ground, Galeazzi had to suffer without pain medication.
“All I could do was scream,” he recalls. “It’s hard to put into worlds that sickening, nauseating feeling to see that my legs were just gone.”
Knowing that he was in a remote location in Afghanistan and that there was little chance he would get timely medical support, Galeazzi assumed he would just die. He blacked out and when he woke up a few minutes later he realized that his fellow soldiers successfully applied tourniquets to both of legs and his arms.
A medic helicopter arrived a half hour later. But Galeazzi said that was just the start of his hardships.
Since then he’s had 50 surgeries, hundreds of hours of physical therapy, and has spent many months in the hospital. The harrowing experience inspired Galeazzi to continue pursuing a career in medicine.
“Not only did I still want to practice medicine, but it strengthened my resolve to do it,” Galeazzi said.
So, Galeazzi spent the next few years taking more than 19 pre-medical courses and worked to achieve his desired score on the MCAT exam. Now, Galeazzi is the only student in his class at Harvard Medical School who uses a wheel chair.
“Mostly, it came as an immense relief to know that my hard work in pre-med and MCAT preparation paid off; and it reminded me just how grateful I am to have survived my injuries, and still have talents to share with the world,” he wrote on his website.
Galeazzi said he hasn’t decided what type of medicine he wants to pursue but is leaning toward the primary care field.
“You’re that first line of defense,” he explains. “You need to know a little bit about everything. I like the idea of being a jack of all trades.”
In his personal life, Galeazzi has been playing more guitar since the loss of his arm and has toured with some be named performers. He is also looking forward to marrying his fiancee.
“Even though I’ve gone through this journey, it’s not lost on me how unbelievable this ride has been,” Galeazzi said.
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source: ABC
