At medical conferences in the mid-1980s across the nation and abroad, doctors and spinal-injury patients marveled as he performed what most considered impossible: Rising from a wheelchair and, using a walker for balance and support, he took step after step across the stage.

The miracle is no more.

Now living with a maze of broken, corroding, electrical wires embedded in his paralyzed legs, suffering infections and needing operations every few months, Winter is wheeling today through the halls of Congress in search of relief.

Ah, this poor fucker. Crippled (moreso, anyway) by science in what sounds like the Victor Von Frankenstein kinda way. The prose is yanking for heartstrings, but somewhere in there is a guy who got a couple years of legs and then nothing but pain, denials and multiple surgery.

Probably a story in here somewhere, too.