On Saturday, July 14th, 2018 around 2:30pm, our brother, Jeff Di Fulgo, was in an accident at Croatan Beach. After spending much of the day body surfing, he dove into a wave and hit his head on a sandbar and shattered his C5 vertebrae.

He underwent emergency surgery to remove C5 and fuse C4 and C6 with a metal plate. He has no feeling from the chest down. Jeff spent 3 months of rehabilitation at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia. We know that Jeff knows this journey better than any of us as he was the Health and Wellness Director of the YMCA in the Hilltop area of Virginia Beach. The cruel irony in this is that Jeff’s life work is helping people regain strength after paralysis through training at the YMCA. Prior to that, he studied Exercise Science and played baseball where he was a pitcher for Norfolk State University.

As you can imagine, the cost throughout his lifetime of therapy and hospitalizations will be staggering. Some of his immediate needs are: monthly health insurance premiums as well as expenses insurance will not cover. Such as ongoing physical therapy, durable medical equipment, a shower wheelchair – this allows him to take a shower – without it he would not be able to, medical supplies for daily living, a manual wheelchair, home modifications, Jeff would like to be able to drive – this will involve special driving modifications for his personal vehicle.