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Twenty-Three Years After Accident, Columbia Gym Employee Reaches Miraculous, Meaningful Milestones

Jeffrey Fineman barely survived a horrific accident when he was 17. Now he is turning 40 and grateful every day for the joys his second chance brings him.

They would be significant milestones for anyone, of course—40 years of life, 20 years working for one company. They are miraculous milestones for Columbia Association employee Jeff Fineman. He will celebrate both in January, more than two decades after a horrific car accident in which he suffered a profound brain injury.  He was 17 at the time. "They told me I was going to have a vegetable," recalled Luba Fineman, Jeff's mother. She is referring to the first reports she received from neurosurgeons at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. In so many ways, March 14, 1988, was otherwise a typical Monday for Jeff and his friend, Dennis Chandler. They attended classes at Atholton High School and then decided to take a spring …

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