LGBT Week @ CSULB

On Tuesday, April 15, 2008, Angela Madsen came to CSULB to speak about her struggles and accomplishments as a lesbian, ex military, paraplegic. In September of 1993 Angela Madsen went into back surgery at a veterans hospital where they fused the wrong disks, drilled through the spine and grafted more bones than originally needed. Multiple mistakes were conducted throughout the surgery leaving Madsen in a hospital bed with metal rods inserted in the lumbar spine 10 and a 1/2 hours later. She was then diagnosed as a paraplegic (having lost feeling in the lower half of her body) and "a waste of human life". Minimal physical therapy was administered or offered to her. Since then she has undergone a bilateral mastectomy for breast cancer and a surgery for carpal tunnel and ulnar nerve. She has also been diagnosed with myasthenia Gravis.
Despite all these obstacles she reached the top. One year after her surgery mishap, she motivated herself to continue to surf and picked up rowing. She has accomplished more in her life as a paraplegic then she ever did before hand. She has received many awards, medals and honors all over the world involving surfing, swimming, wheel chair basketball and rowing. One of her greatest achievements yet, was rowing across the Atlantic ocean through wind, rain and enormous waves in 67 days. The Race across the Atlantic started 12/02/07 in La Gomer of the Canary Islands with a distance of 2,250NM. At age 47, Angela Madsen and Franck crossed the finish line in Antigua in the west Indies at 7:24 AM on 02/07/08 making Angela the first differently abeld, lesbian woman to row across the Atlantic ocean.
This woman is an amazing athlete! Having faced so much she still managed to overcome the obstacles set forth. This woman achieved a goal that most people would never think of or try. I thought that she is an athlete that everyone should know about. If you would like to read about Angela in more detail her website is www.rowoflife.net.