Nutritional Enhancement for the Disabled
The Lani Deauville Story

Approximately 10 years ago, medical journalist Dr. Morton Walker discovered an amazing green powder called GREENS+, the first "superfood". Out of curiosity, and to see if it really worked to improve his health, Dr. Walker began to take this product. Finding himself feeling younger, less stressed, and healthier, he began to research this incredible product.

He found that it had been developed by a Canadian biochemist named Sam Graci. Upon interviewing Mr. Graci, Dr. Walker discovered that the product had been developed by Mr. Graci in an attempt to make his aunt, who suffered from multiple sclerosis, and his sister-in-law, a quadriplegic, healthier, with a better quality of life. His research, it turned out, centered primarily on Graci’s sister-in-law, Lani Deauville.

Dr. Walker found that prior to her spinal cord injury at the age of seventeen, Lani was an outstanding athlete, remarkably healthy, and a beautiful young woman who had reasonably good grades in school (though she confessed that she disliked school very much because she was bored), excelled at sports, and held track records for women in her school. At fourteen years of age, she became a diving champion in her home state of Florida. A year later, wanting to leave school, and escape a dysfunctional home environment, she seized an opportunity offered to her and left the ninth grade in order to model professionally in New York City. After a year and a half, she decided that modeling was not as glamorous or exciting as she had hoped, and returned home to Daytona Beach in order to decide what she wanted to do for a living. After returning home, she experimented, working at various jobs including secretary, lifeguard, restaurant hostess/cashier, horse trainer, and cocktail waitress -- a job that she admits she was unsuited for her because of her age -- but one that she smilingly admits paid well!

On June 2, 1958, a couple of days after participating in a Memorial Day beauty pageant, Lani attended a beach party with friends in Jacksonville, Florida. The day was fiercely hot so Lani and her friends decided to go swimming. "I had grown up where there was an exceedingly wide beach, but in Jacksonville there was no beach to speak of at the place where we were swimming -- only a seawall holding back the ocean. I dove from that seawall, not expecting the water to be as shallow as it was", Lani explained. "Plus, I had been drinking and was in a known high-risk category for spinal cord injury -- a young adult who had been drinking! I readily admit to being a big-time risk taker -- diving off bridges, swimming across treacherous inlets, racing cars at high speeds -- after all, I grew up in Daytona Beach, the speed capital of the United States! I performed any scary activity I could think of, and never turned down a dare. So, rather than doing a rational belly flop as everyone else in my group did, I did a showoff dive -- going in straight -- a perfect 10! I slammed into the ocean floor extremely hard, breaking my neck at the fourth, fifth, and sixth cervical vertebrae with the fifth exploding upon impact. I regained consciousness as my friends were attempting to pull me from the water. Having been a lifeguard, I knew that dead weight was much heavier than someone holding on and trying to help -- however, I found that I could not move my arm and was having trouble breathing. I regained consciousness again, lying on the grass with my friends assuring me that an ambulance was on its way. I tried to tell them that I was okay -- that I had just had the breath knocked out of me -- but was unable to breathe well enough to speak clearly. The ambulance arrived and I was rushed to Baptist Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville."

Suddenly Lani Becomes Quadriplegic

"Regaining consciousness again, I found the top of my head shaved and my skull partially penetrated by metallic tongs screwed in, stretching my neck tight with twenty pounds of sandbags providing traction. For a full month I laid in the hospital bed in that same position, unable to move, because I had suddenly become a quadriplegic. I couldn't move anything from the site of my damaged vertebrae downward. Then, I was told that the life expectancy of a quadriplegic was five years -- if they survived the initial injury", Lani Told Dr. Walker matter-of-factly.

In quadriplegia, paralysis of the arms, the legs, and the body below the level of a trauma to the spinal cord sets in permanently, Dr. Walker explained. Lani Deauville's injury was typical. Sporting mishaps such as those that happen in diving and from automobile accidents are the most common causes of spinal cord injury. It has overwhelmed motion picture actor Christopher Reeve, also paralyzed from the neck down as the result of a freak horseback riding accident in May, 1985, who has recently passed away.

Diagnosis of quadriplegia is based on a complete physical examination, which involves the patient's nervous system. X-ray pictures of the head, chest, and abdomen are taken to rule out other injuries. X-ray films must be made of the spinal cord to show any fractures and blockages. The level of cord damage determines the extent of paralysis. For example, lesions at or above the fourth cervical (C-4) vertebra cause respiratory paralysis and are often fatal. Trauma at C-4 to C-5 can cause complete quadriplegia. With a lesion between C-5 and C6, arms can abduct and flex. Damage between C6 and C7 paralyzes the legs, wrists, and hands but allows shoulder movement and elbow flexion. Transverse lesions above the first thoracic (T-1) vertebra cause Horner's syndrome: constricted pupils, upper eyelid droop (ptosis) and facial dryness (anhidrosis) from lack of sweat. Lesions striking lower down the spinal cord give rise to other various diagnostic symptoms and signs (Rahway, NJ; Merck Research Laboratories, 1992 -- pages 1464 & 1465.)

The signs and symptoms of quadriplegia commonly include limpness of the arms and legs, plus a loss of muscle power and nerve sensation below the level of the injury. Since the heart is a muscle, heart problems can be a complication from any injury that damages the spinal cord above the fifth cervical vertebra. Inside the spinal cord, the trauma tends to block signals from the sympathetic nervous,system to the heart muscle. Another major cause of death from such an accident is breathing failure due to the collapse of the lungs or paralysis of the muscles necessary to the breathing process. Additional dangerous symptoms may include low body temperature, abnormally slow heartbeat, impaired digestive system contractions, and loss of normal reflexes. Urinary tract infections such as cystitis, lung infections such as pneumonia, central nervous system infections such as meningitis, gastrointestinal ulcerations, osteoporosis causing spontaneous fractures, bedsores, bowel blockages, motor weakness and wasting, excruciating pain, spinal shock, emotional scarring, and much more can end the life of a quadriplegic. All sorts of complicating discomforts -- most of them life-threatening -- are characteristic of quadriplegia. If one survives the initial spinal cord trauma, death is likely to occur from one of these complications.

With a potential spinal cord injury, emergency treatment today begins at the accident scene. The neck and spine of the patient must be kept immobilized. Additional means to keep the neck and spine immobilized at the hospital include using special traction equipment, inserting a urinary tube into the bladder (catheter), and the use of a respirator or therapy to ensure the breathing function. In the 1970s, diuretics began to be used to reduce spinal cord swelling -- although this was not an available option in the 1950s when Lani broke her neck. However, surgery was frequently done to join unstable spinal sections and to remove any bone fragments. Such a stabilizing surgical operation was accomplished for Lani.

Our Patient Undergoes Orthopedic Surgery

"In 1958, if you broke your neck you died. Unfortunately, the treatment common today for spinal cord injuries was nonexistent at that time. I had been assigned a neurosurgeon who did nothing to stabilize my neck. Apparently, he felt that if I was going to die from my spinal cord injury, it was useless to put me through surgery. After a month of no improvement it became apparent to me that if there were bones broken in my neck I would never be able to hold my head up -- and rehabilitation would be impossible. Spending the rest of my life in bed and dying from one of the complications that I had heard about could not be an option for me. Because of the instability of my spinal column, I was forced to stay immobile, imprisoned in a body that remained motionless.

There were no television sets in hospital rooms in those days, and my roommate was a woman in her 90s who was comatose. I was left to my self and to my always vivid imagination. In order to entertain myself, I learned to undergo experiences in which my soul left my body and wandered about. "It was really neat", Lani declared. "However, I realized that something had to be done so that I could hold up my head, and eventually sit up. I talked to my favorite orderly and asked him to recommend the best orthopedic surgeon in town. He said there were two -- one older and more experienced, and the other younger and just out of medical school. I asked the head nurse to call in the younger of the two orthopedists for a consultation, feeling that he would have more up-to-date information about how to work on a spinal cord injury. He arrived the next day, we hit it off immediately, and surgery was scheduled for the following day to fuse together the broken vertebra and to remove bone particles.

Within days following my surgery, I could move my arms slightly. However, I was to find that this was only the beginning of the long road to "recovery". During the time that I had been lying in bed in traction, huge decubitus ulcers had perforated my hips, heels, and other body areas. Reconstructive plastic surgery had to be done to correct the decubitus ulcers or I could develop and infection and die."

A decubitus ulcer is described by Dr. Walker as a swollen sore of the skin over a bony part of the body, resulting from prolonged pressure on the part. Decubitus ulcers appear on patients such as the elderly, infirm, or severely ill, who are unable to move. The sores are graded by stages of severity. In stage one, the skin is red and does not return to normal with relief of pressure. In stage two, the skin is blistered, peeling, or cracked though damage is still minor. In stage three, the skin is broken and tissue under the skin may also be damaged with drainage seen. In stage four, a deep crater like ulcer forms and the full thickness of skin plus underlying tissue get destroyed -- sometimes the crater is so deep that the bone is exposed. Such was the case with Lani. Plastic surgery had to be done to correct thempotentially deadly decubitus ulcer that had resulted from her lying immobile in bed for an extended time.

"Finally, after about a year in the hospital, fighting for my life from all of the ills that can befall a quadriplegic, the Vocational Rehabilitation Agency of the State of Florida accepted me as its first quadriplegic client. As soon as the plastic surgery to correct the decubitus ulcers healed, I was sent to the Howard Rusk Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in New York City -- at the time, the best rehabilitation facility in the country for people with spinal cord injuries. Since I had been an athlete prior to my spinal cord injury, and since muscle spasms had been a part of my life ever since I broke my neck, my spasms had become so powerful that I involuntarily kicked people across the room. It took three people to dress me; one to put the clothes on me while the other two tried to contain my spastic muscles. Any movement that I tried to make on my own would see me thrown out of my wheelchair from muscle spasms. Sometimes I would land on the floor ten feet away. Finally, I had to be held in place in the wheelchair by three thick leather straps. During my stay there, the physical therapists determined that my muscle spasms were so massive that I was not a candidate for rehabilitation! My life expectancy and the quality of my life were expected to be dreadful, if the spasms were to continue in this manner.

One day, a famous neurological specialist, Dr. Irving Cooper, appeared at my door and advised that surgery to sever my motor nerves should be done -- an experimental surgery that he had done only a couple of times before. He could surgically sever my motor nerves and, hopefully, that would stop the muscle spasms and allow for my rehabilitation to continue. However, he explained if he performed the surgery and a cure for spinal cord injury was ever discovered, the surgery would prevent the possibility of my ever walking again. At that point, with virtually no hesitation, I called my parents in Daytona Beach and told them that I wanted to have the surgery. They agreed, and the surgery was performed within days. To this day, I would recommend, even though a cure seems to be close, that anyone with a spinal cord injury proceed with their life and not wait for the cure -- even though one may be right around the corner. Today, at a healthy fifty- five years of age, I realized that if I had waited for a cure, I wouldn't still be lying in bed -- I would be inevitably dead already! I recovered from the surgery very quickly and returned to the Rusk Institute excited about my future in rehabilitation -- only to find that Florida's vocational rehabilitation agency had run out of money and could not pay for further rehabilitation. I was to be sent home!

A Complicated College Entrance for Lani

Upon returning home to Daytona Beach, I realized that I had to do something for a living that would pay enough to support my quadriplegia ( wheelchairs, an attendant, accessible housing, etc.). Obviously, I couldn't do this without a college education -- and I hadn't even finished high school! I decided to take the test to get my GED (high school equivalency diploma). Much to my chagrin, I discovered that Florida had enacted a law, designed to keep young people in high school, making it illegal to take the GED test before the age of twenty. I was nineteen and had to wait a year before I could take the test that would allow me entrance to a junior college. During this time, my dad set me up in a mail-order business that I could run from the house. My mother and father continued working, a necessity that helped me to become far more independent than if my mother had stayed home to be my caretaker. The year passed relatively quickly. Upon turning twenty, I immediately took and passed the GED test."

With her GED in hand, she attempted to enter Daytona Beach Community College, but was told that it was impossible because most of her classes would be on the second floor and there were no elevators. In the 1950s, accessibility was, for most people, not even yet a dream. At that time, there was one institution of higher learning in the United States that was accessible for wheelchairs -- the University of Illinois.

"I was determined to attend Daytona Beach Community College, so when I was told that I was not going to be accepted as a student because I couldn't get to the classes on the second floor, I laughingly told the registrar that I would levitate! Smiling at the look of utter confusion on his face, I told him that I would talk to my vocational rehabilitation counselor and ask him to hire a strong young man to carry me up and down the stairs. With a doubtful look, the register agreed to access me as a student conditionally -- I had to be able to attend all classes on the second floor and I had to sustain at least a 2.0 Grade Point Average (GPA). With more confidence than I really felt, I assured the registrar that it would be no problem."

During her two years at the community college, Lani's books and tuition were furnished by vocational rehabilitation, but she paid for her own room, board, clothing, and incidentals by working as a tutor and as a reader for the blind. Because accessibility had not yet then made law, people in wheelchairs were rarely seen in public. So, initially, most of the students tended to avoid her. She was seen as unusual. Stubborn as she was, she refused to accept this, so she pushed her way into socializing with them -- wheeling up to groups of students who were talking in the hallways between classes and joining the conversation. She often joked about them being afraid that they would "catch" her disability. Soon enough, Lani was accepted and was asked to join a sorority, found great popularity among fellow students and became a charter member of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society (the junior college version of Phi Beta Kappa -- the universities’ honor society for students with exceptionally high grades). She graduated from community college with numerous honors and scholarships. In her sophomore year at the community college, the night before the election, Lani was talked into running for president of the student body by her sorority. She lost the election by less than 20 votes. She was named outstanding female student, graduated with a very high grade point average and was nominated to the community college’s Hall of Fame.

As Dr. Walker's research continued, he learned that Lani had entered the community college with the intention of becoming a speech therapist. After taking her first psychology course, Lani was hooked! She sought a degree in psychology as one means of returning the affection and expressions of love which she had received following her spinal cord injury. She believed it was a viable way to use her brain rather than her body to help to improve society and people's lives.

She then entered the University of South Florida that had been recently built with accessibility for the handicapped, only the second university in the country to do so. Her family had no money remaining after paying Lani's immense medical bills. Although the vocational rehabilitation agency again paid for her college tuition and books, she continued her job as a tutor and became a reader for blind students in order to earn income for the many other costs that her education required. These costs included not only her own room, board, and incidentals -- but also the tuition, books, room, and board for another student/attendant to care for her while she was in the University. She needed an attending support person because of the great number of physical problems affecting her. She also could not, and still cannot, fully-dress herself and she needed assistance with bathing and using the toilet. Lani continued to experience frequent skin breakdowns with ulcerations, urinary tract infections, pneumonia, bronchitis, and many other disorders that are known to kill quadriplegics. For each of her school years, a critical illness required Lani to undergo hospitalization at least once and sometimes multiple times. Frequently, she was in critical condition, but always managed to come through. Finally, after two years, she graduated from the University of South Florida with a 3.86 Grade Point Average (GPA) out of a possible 4.0. Upon graduation, and much to her surprise, Lani received numerous academic honors.

With the intention of earning a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, she had been applying to graduate schools at universities around the country. One school after another refused her admission because no facility was accessible to the handicapped except for the University of Illinois and Lani realized that her fragile circulatory system could not handle the extreme cold in Illinois. Unfortunately, the University of South Florida was a brand-new school and had not yet developed any graduate programs.

Lani Enters Graduate School

Then, something marvelous happened! Having heard about Lani from her psychology professors at the University of South Florida, and upon his own volition, Dr. Paul Segal, Chairman of the Graduate Department in Psychology at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, invited Lani to attend graduate school at the University. Having deliberately avoided applying to the University of Alabama because of the racial situation that was occurring there during the 1960s with Governor George Wallace, Lani explained to Dr. Segal that she was a civil rights advocate, and was hesitant to enter the fray. She fully expected that if she lived in Alabama at the time, she would end up in jail, or worse. Dr. Segal assured her that he was positive that she could handle the situation, and offered Lani a scholarship as well as a teaching Fellowship, which would provide her payment as a psychology instructor at the University. Desperately needing the money to pay for attendant care, and aware that it was unlikely that she would be accepted at any other university because of the accessibility problems, Lani accepted Dr. Segal's proposition.

"I found myself in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, surrounded by racial strife and chaos. The graduate program in clinical psychology was surprisingly good. I was delighted to find that my professors were excellent and there was an apparent lack of racial problems in the psychology department at the University. However, shortly after my arrival, I drove to a friend's house to study statistics together and on the drive home, I passed a large city block square with a large bonfire in the middle. Assuming it was a pep rally for the famous University of Alabama football team, the "Crimson Tide", I slowed down to take a look. To my horror, I saw a large group of people in white sheets with pointed hoods! It was obviously a Klan meeting of the KKK! As soon as I got home, I called Dr. Segal and explained with anger and despair what I had seen. He assured me that this was a common occurrence because Tuscaloosa, Alabama was the home of the "Imperial Wizard" of the KKK. He told me not to worry -- that I would get used to it. I never did! Having had friends of other races all my life, it was inevitable that I would get involved. Because visitors of other races were frequent at my house, I was asked by landlords to move over and over again. Finally, I rented on a month-to-month basis, an antebellum mansion that was about to be torn down to make room for office buildings. Earning support money was mandatory for me, so I turned the old building into a boarding house, renting rooms to students. For cleaning and cooking, I hired a wonderful woman who needed work to support her thirteen children, and who was delighted to receive minimum wage for this (domestic workers in Alabama were paid far less than minimum wage at the time). My borders were provided with clean sheets once a week, a clean place in which to live, and a healthy dinner five nights a week. I was fortunate to be able to stay there for the remainder of my graduate school training."

Body Breakdown Occurs Repeatedly

Lani's need to earn enough money to support both her needs and to pay for the attendant whose care made it possible for her to live independently, had a devastating toll on her body. It's no wonder that she experienced body breakdown. With all of her activities, she was averaging about four hours sleep each night. During her four years of graduate school, she supported herself in many ways. She taught psychology at the University, worked in the Psychological Clinic at the University where she provided psychotherapy to the students and psychological testing to whomever needed it. She ran group therapy at the state mental hospital, treated depressed patients at the Veterans Administration Hospital, and worked at the University's student health center as a crisis counselor for drug abuse (these were the early years of the psychedelic drugs. Frequently Lani would be called in the middle of the night to go to the student health center in order to talk a student through a "bad trip".

"One night, I awoke with a severe pain in my abdomen -- as if something had exploded inside me. My abdomen swelled like a balloon, making me look as if I were nine months pregnant. After a couple of days in bed I realize that something serious was wrong so I admitted myself as a patient to the student health center. The student health center kept me in bed for a few days, but was unable to make a diagnosis. Then, I was sent to the local hospital where I stayed for three weeks -- connected to an IV, yet there was still no diagnosis. The doctors kept testing me for pregnancy, but I assured them that if I was pregnant it had to be an immaculate conception because I had no time for anything else with my busy schedule! It was obvious, however, that something had to be done because I was getting much worse and losing weight like crazy, dropping from 98 pounds to just 65 pounds! At that rate, I realized that I couldn't go on much longer without something being done because death was just around the corner. I called my parents and they arrived to take me home to Daytona Beach where I was hospitalized in our local hospital" Lani said.

"It was obvious to me that I required exploratory surgery, rather than just waiting to die. But the hospital personnel refused to carry out the operation because of my quadriplegia. I was in critical condition, my weight was dangerously low, my breathing was bad, and the chance that I would make it through surgery was so slim that the surgeons were afraid that I would die on the operating table. Refusing to die, I called our family attorney and threatened to sue the hospital if they refused to operate and I died as a result of their refusal. Grudgingly, they agreed to perform exploratory surgery, having decided that they could "blame" the surgery on my gallbladder that had stopped functioning. Upon opening my belly, the surgeons learned that six weeks earlier, an ovary had ruptured because of cysts, and the killer, peritonitis, had set in. Fortunately, my determination paid off as the surgery and major doses of antibiotics cleared up the peritoneal infection", Lani explained.

She Works in an Occupation with Regular Hours

The ovarian cyst problem had taken place near the end of the fourth year of Lani's graduate schooling. It prevented her from her from completing the required dissertation for a doctorate in clinical psychology. Instead, she spent the following year attempting to regain her health and to earn additional income. She accepted a position teaching psychology at a community college in Florida. "It was just wonderful! I thought I'd died and gone to heaven," she told me. "I had not worked so few hours since beginning community college eight years before."  She did not go back to finish her dissertation at the University of Alabama, or anywhere else for that matter. She was amazed that working a normal job (although she taught a complete caseload five days a week and did psychotherapy two nights a week) was so much easier physically than attending graduate school. She relates smilingly that she has never been denied a position that she wanted. Not having completed her Ph.D. degree was never a problem for her.

After teaching for two and a half years, she decided that her education as a clinical psychologist was going to waste, so she went into private practice as a therapist. Her patients were most often persons who were sent by the courts or by parents or by spouses to receive psychotherapy. Hardly ever did the patients come motivated to consult her on their own. This was extremely discouraging to her because seldom, if ever, were her patients really desirous of solving their psychological or social difficulties.

"I found it frustrating to deal with people's lack of enthusiasm to feel better about themselves. So, I discontinued private practice and took another job as a rehabilitation psychologist at a rehabilitation facility. I had always avoided the stereotype of working with people with physical disabilities, but I found that I liked my new job a great deal. I worked not only with people with spinal cord disabilities, but also with those who were blind, deaf, mentally ill, mentally retarded, psychotic, neurotic, prisoners on work release, federal prisoners awaiting sentencing, and patients who had sustained strokes," revealed Lani. "During this entire period, however, at least yearly I would end up in the hospital, not expected to live because of some major medical crisis. Each time, I would be left with a slightly less amount of reserve with which to fight the next illness. It was only a matter of time until I ran out of reserves entirely", she related.

Writing Legislation for Universal Access by the Disabled

"I worked as a rehabilitation psychologist until changing positions to be a Client Relations Coordinator for the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services in the state of Florida. The department was composed of a huge conglomeration of social agencies, and I worked as the problem-solver or trouble shooter for the district administrator," Lani said. "Moreover, I helped to write accessibility legislation for persons in wheelchairs for the State of Florida and for the Federal government. I remember one year, while I was waiting to take my high school equivalency test, my mother and I went to an afternoon movie. During the movie, the manager came up to me, tapped me on the shoulder, and told me I would have to leave because, sitting in the aisle in my wheelchair, I was a fire hazard! I assured him that if there was a fire, I would be the first one out. That was not good enough. He told me to leave. Stunned, I looked him square in the eye and told him that if he wanted me to leave, he would have to call the police to remove me. I said that when the police arrived, they would have to carry me out kicking and screaming! Then, I vowed that, if necessary, I would spend the rest of my life, sitting in front of his theater with a sign that said "This theater discriminates against people with disabilities. Please take your business to another theater". Passive resistance a la Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King! I had learned from the civil rights resistance of the 60s. The theater owner gave up and retreated, leaving me to watch the movie in peace -- but realizing that the world was not much more accessible to people with disabilities then it was to people of color. I was determined to eventually try to do something to correct that inequality.

" Having been a person who was exceedingly physically active prior to suddenly becoming someone with a major disability, quadriplegia, I realized that there was no such thing as universal access for disabled persons who used wheelchairs. While working as a rehabilitation psychologist, and later for the state of Florida for the primary social services agency, I helped to write accessibility legislation for persons in wheelchairs for the state of Florida and for the Federal government. I take a great deal of pride in having participated in creating legislation that went into effect in 1974 for improved accessibility for handicapped people. I believe that I've been able to make a lasting contribution for every American with a physical disability", admitted Lani.

Lani Deauville is one of the primary movers who caused universal access laws for disabled people to be enacted, specifically in her home state of Florida, and generally throughout the United States. Laws were changed in the nation beginning in 1974 that would provide improved accessibility for disabled people. Starting to take place then were numerous renovations of public facilities that we see today. For instance, access was provided for those disabled individuals who had to use wheelchairs in public bathrooms. Also, ramping of entrance ways was beginning to be provided, along with easier access to sidewalks from the curbs of streets, accessibility to and from parking areas, handicapped parking spaces, safer entrances to swimming pools, and much more. For blind individuals, in meeting rooms and in some elevators there were accommodations using braille lettering. People who were deaf or hard of hearing were beginning to be accommodated by individuals schooled in using sign language being available at public forums attended by deaf people.

As a result of such changes in progress and her work rehabilitating disabled people, president Gerald Ford, in 1976, invited Lani and her husband, Jude, to the White House, proclaiming her "Disabled Employee of the Year"! Thereupon, for a twelve month period following, she and Jude traveled the United States, giving speeches, television interviews, radio and newspaper interviews, and was given many honors from those communities she visited around the country. Community officials treated Lani Deauville and her husband as VIPs. It was a whirlwind year, but the perpetual traveling and constant attention of "being onstage" was taking a toll on her health. Probably few, if any, of the Governors, Mayors, etc. who honored her realized that her health was being sacrificed by eating on the run, getting little exercise, and even less rest. Yet, through all of this activity Lani was not physically well.

"It was a long and exhausting year," she admits, "but an exciting one. My husband Jude, whom I married in the early 1970s, became the embodiment of my independence and my support system. He is the most remarkable person whom I have ever met. Jude provided my personal care lovingly and graciously, and accompanied me all over the country. Fortunately, his employer was understanding and allowed him time off of his job to travel with me on these numerous excursions throughout the United States. When I met Jude, he was a successful singer who turned down a recording contract with a major record label in order to adopt a lifestyle closer to mine. Jude stepped out of the spotlight and stood behind me so that I might win the laurels. What an incredible human being! Being a real self-confident man, my husband has never let me feel as if I'm confined to a wheelchair. I've ridden horseback (one of the loves of my life), swim regularly for cardiovascular exercise, and he's had me in many activities that are surprising for someone with a disability such as mine."

Lani Deauville did not rest on her laurels. In 1980, she went to work as the first female and first disabled person to ever direct the Florida State Vocational Rehabilitation Agency and, in fact, the first female and disabled person to direct a Vocational Rehabilitation program in the United States. Because of her poor experiences as a Vocational Rehabilitation client, the only way Lani would accept the directorship of the agency was if the Governor of Florida gave his assurances that she would be allowed to make the changes that she felt were needed in the program. He did!

"You know, people have expressed sympathy, saying how horrible it must be to be confined to a wheelchair for 39 years.' But my experience is that a wheelchair doesn't confine, it liberates. If you are stuck in bed, unable to get up, then you are confined. &Now that the United States is more accessible to persons in wheelchairs, a physically disabled person can go nearly anywhere. I feel that I have as much freedom as anyone. In retrospect, I wouldn't change five minutes of my life with anyone," says Lani. "I have had such a wonderfully blessed life that if I were to die tomorrow, I would not change a single thing. I have been given the most incredible gift!" This is truly an incredibly positive-thinking woman.

With each episode of illness, invariably she ended up worse than she was before, getting sick because her immune system was exhausted and refused to respond totally. There came a time when our heroine could not function effectively, simply because life-threatening illnesses struck more and more frequently. At least once annually for 33 years, she was hospitalized in critical condition, even after the Governor convinced her to become director of the state vocational rehabilitation agency, the illnesses that plagued most paraplegics and quadriplegics continued to haunt her. Finally after more years of public service, the physical problems that created interruptions in her work schedule caused her to retire.

Lani and Jude's son, Ryan, was born in 1986, when Lani was forty-six years old, just prior to Lani's retirement. Having given the commencement address at Indian River community college in 1984, the Deauville's fell in love with Vero Beach and decided to retire there. "Surely, now that I'm no longer working and stressing my body so much, my health will improve", she anticipated happily. It was not to be.

The first illness hitting when Lani retired and moved to Vero Beach was a stomach ulcer, which she had had since college. The stomach ulcer hemorrhaged. Her loved ones rushed her to the hospital. Her peptic ulcer was cauterized, and she was given numerous blood transfusions. A short time after that recovery, Jude lifted her for placement into their hot tub, and her hip broke spontaneously due to osteoporosis from being in a wheelchair and immobile for so many years. That hospitalization lasted for three weeks, for the osteoporosis had de-mineralized her bones to a kind of "Swiss cheese" consistency.

Next, she sustained a severe bacterial urinary tract infection, causing her to run fevers of 105°. Another time, an intestinal blockage caused her to undergo surgery to remove the intestinal blockage that had been caused by scar tissue from the peritonitis which she had suffered years before when her ovary ruptured. The episodes of surgery and hospitalization were accompanied by multiple complications such as viral infections, pneumonia, skin ulcerations, spontaneous bleeding, septicemia, and worse. "Each hospitalization saw me ending up worse off than before," Lani admits.

Sam Graci, Lani's brother-in-law, has given the woman another valuable gift -- the present state of her good health. As stated, when she met Sam, Lani was a periodically ill individual, hospitalized on a regular basis in dire straits. With each illness, the anticipation by her loved ones was "this time, she is going to die". Sickness was expected to strike at any time, and part of the reason for this was her poor eating habits, plus a body weight that perpetually stayed far below normal.

But Sam Graci changed the entire situation for her by developing a highly nutritious "green drink" that includes almost every worthwhile ingredient known to man. From those early days of the product's alterations such as modifying its taste to make it more palatable for her and other improvements, such as making it enzymatically alive -- thereby more easily and rapidly digested, using all organically-grown or a wild harvested (from the world's most pristine places) ingredients, it has developed into what's known today as GREENS+. Lani says, "Sam used me as his favorite human guinea pig. He called me and told me that he had put together a green drink that he would thought would help Jude's aunt who suffered from multiple sclerosis and, possibly, my health as well. Pond scum, I thought as I looked at it the first time!" However, in desperation, and as directed by Sam, Lani began drinking GREENS+ every morning.

"The goal of Sam's experiments was to make my problem as a disabled person less significant by targeting nourishment to my body cells. So, Sam kept changing the green drink powders to improve their healing qualities. Eventually, he perfected the formula into what later became GREENS+, an event which has totally transformed my life and my health," Lani affirms.

After drinking GREENS+ for a few weeks, one of Lani's neighbors, a close friend, rode by early one evening on her bicycle as Jude and Lani were playing ball in the street with Ryan. Their friends screeched to a stop and said, "gracious, Lani, you look wonderful! What have you been doing to look so healthy?" Lani told her that she was drinking a weird concoction that her brother-in-law had put together to try to make her healthy again. "Well”, the neighbor said, “if it can do that for you, I would like to buy a bottle." Within two weeks she was back to buy yet another bottle! Lani explained to her that a bottle of GREENS+ was supposed to last a month, whereupon the neighbor told her that she had given the green drink to her husband who had been in a depression for a number of years. That very evening, he suggested to her and their twin daughters that they all go bicycle riding together! It was the first time in years that he suggested doing anything other than sitting on the couch and watching television until he fell asleep. Their friend said, "I decided that if it can do that for Lani and my husband, then I wanted to take it myself." -- and that's how GREENS+ got started.

"I've been supplementing my food intake with this formula for 16 years, and I've not had a major illness and remain incredibly healthy. I used to have problems with indigestion and was constipated most of the time. Doctors treated me constantly with drugs, laxatives, stool formers, bulkers, bowel stimulants, and more. When I started taking GREENS+ my bowels became absolutely regular with no more problems. All trace of my intestinal troubles are gone and the abdominal ulcer disappeared years ago."

"The smoothness of my skin has improved dramatically, my mental acuity has increased and my pain has diminished by adding Pro-Relief + to my supplementation. The bad osteoporosis I had has reduced dramatically, as indicated on newly exposed x-ray films," she states. "I have no more skin breakdowns, and am filled with energy. Moreover, I have greater use of my arms now, with the development of triceps and deltoid muscles that had been absent. I swim as frequently as possible and work out with a personal trainer twice a week, I found that I could do all of the wife/mom jobs, like going to the grocery store, cooking, playing with our son Ryan, and working part time. I actually became a soccer mom! My weight has increased from an unhealthy sixty-five pounds following the ruptured ovary, to a stable one hundred and twenty. I am just very healthy, happy, and wouldn't trade places with anyone."

"This formula seems to provide the most complete nutrition than I have ever experienced," says Lani. "Once people try the supplement and observe what it does for them, they reorder it over and over again. Its nutritional components tend to nourish the body at the sight of the primary problem, such as at the joints for arthritis, the skin for eczema, the stomach and bowels for indigestion, and at those body parts where other physical complaints exist. The list of ailments helped by taking this green product becomes absolutely mind-boggling. It even aids you in correcting bad eating habits."

"There was a time when I never watched what I ate -- a lot of fast food and other junk that was bad for me -- hence my ulcer developed and flared periodically, prior to GREENS+", admits Lani. "I was a classic chocoholic with tremendous cravings for the sweet stuff that's so loaded with caffeine. But, since taking the formula, my eating habits have improved with less addiction to chocolate and far less consumption of fried foods. This product helps my body want to reject junk food altogether. Perfect nutrition seems to come from daily supplementation with this wonderful mixture."

This incredible product boosts the immune system of disabled people and anyone who takes it. In Lani's case, movement has returned to her arms and the balance of her upper body. Looking at her, you'll notice that Lani's fingers don't work and, of course, her lower limbs still don't function. But, otherwise, she appears quite normal. Good nutrition from taking her green drink has done wonders for the quadriplegic and it can do that same for anyone who imbibes it.

Lani Deauville advises, "I am 65 years old, and observers tell me that I look like I'm in my 30s." And she does!