Bout with paralysis moves Boca man to devote life to health, caring

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Boca Raton News
Sunday December 3, 2006
Bout with paralysis moves Boca man to devote life to health, caring

Published Sunday, December 3, 2006

by By Dale M. King

The morning of Halloween 1965, recalls J. Robert Gordon, “I woke up dead.”

The 24-year-old had just finished a stint as chief of protocol at the New York World’s Fair in 1964 and 1965. “My mind was in it, but my body was depleted.”

That horrible Halloween, Gordon said, he could not move a single muscle in his body. He was diagnosed with Guillian-Barre Syndrome. “I lost all my motor skills.”

What followed was years of rehabilitation, nine months on a ventilator just to breathe, seven years in a wheelchair and more years on crutches.

His brush with paralysis gave Gordon, a Boston native now living in Boca Raton, a new appreciation of health – and how to preserve it.