Imagine waking up from a coma in a hospital bed and realizing that you're connected to three life support machines, unable to eat or speak and the entire left side of your body is paralyzed. Imagine seven months stuck in three hospitals and unable to go home. Five months without the ability to walk. Four months without the capacity to speak or shower. Three months without being able to eat real food.

That's what happened to Joseph Parenti, who was broadsided by a speeding, stolen car as he was driving his vehicle on December 5, 1988. His life was turned upside...