Anthony Scelfo is a young man who I coached pretty regularly at a gym I used to work at before opening my own. Anthony was very good at all the CF movements and always attacked each WOD with a vengeance. He had such a great attitude and gave 100% in every work out and always seemed hungry for more. He was very fit when he started doing CrossFit and over the many months of training became even more fit. On February 2, 2012, Anthony was riding his motorcycle downtown Memphis when a bus pulled out in front of him. While Anthony tried his best to miss the bus, he was unable to and he hit the bus.
Anthony sustained many injuries and was in ICU for a number of weeks. We didn’t get the news of his accident until late February. Once we learned of it, several of us had the opportunity to visit with him. Anthony is a strong minded and bodied individual and will have to undergo extensive therapy to regain full physical and mental capacity to get back to where he once was. I got to speak with his mom about Anthony and how strong willed he is and she commented that he always was as a little boy.
With permission from Anthony’s mom, I am including an update on his health she recently posted to his Facebook page.
“Anthony is at Shepherds Center in Atlanta for rehabilitation. They immediately took him off of the narcotic pain meds because those interfere with cognition and motor coordination as well as the healing and repair of the brain. He has excruciatingly severe head pain now, especially after physical, occupational, and speech therapy….the kind of pain that will put him into the fetal position. They are giving him different treatments that reduce the pain, but after being drugged up with the narcotics at the hospital in Memphis, it’s going to take some time for him to get used to a different level of pain. He is strong and stubborn and we have faith that he will pull through this pain. He has issues with his blood pressure and nearly passed out a couple of times….needless to say he doesn’t feel very well when that happens. His long term memory is coming back, sometimes hit or miss. His nuero psychologist tells us it is common for head trauma patients to just be agreeable when someone says something.. as in “oh yeh, I remember that” or to make up things. Anthony’s short term memory is nill. But at least he knows that he was injured on his motorcycle by a bus because of what people keep telling him (however sometimes it’s hit by a car, or motorcycle). Interestingly, he did genuinely remember the last thing he and his co-workers were doing and joking about just before getting on his motorcycle before the crash (his co-workers were visiting him and talking about it in the hosp. room). They were talking about it and he did truly remember and was cracking up about it. He remains easily confused and agitated and frustrated. We are hoping to see forward progress in the weeks and months ahead, the doctors have told us there will be times of seemingly no progress and other times of great progress….as well as times that he will seem to go backwards. We all remain thankful that he is alive, making progress, as well as thankful for all of your prayers.”
In honor of Anthony, we will be performing a “Team Scelfo” WOD tomorrow. I will be recording parts of the workout and we will send it to Anthony.
3/5/12
Back Squat 6×3
or
Squat Clean 5×3
WOD
“Team Scelfo”
Buy in: 3 rope climbs or 30 chin ups
Then
Power Clean/Push Press Complex x 15 (65/95)
Wall Ball x 15 (14/20)
Pull ups x 15
Box jumps x 15 (20/24)
KB Swings x 15 (35/53)
Toes 2 Bar/Knees 2 Elbow x 15
Double Unders x 15 (singles x 75)
4 rounds
Cash out: Turkish Get ups x 3/side (optional and time permitting)