Hit-and-run victim dedicates life after recovery to helping others

TAMPA, Fla. - A hit-and-run accident changed the career path for a Bay Area resident, who is now devoted to helping others.

Vincent Lanci is glad to be walking again. When he was 21, he was walking home and became the victim of a hit-and-run.

"The next thing I knew I woke up at Tampa General Hospital out of a comma about a week later," he recalled. "At first, there was speculation if I would make it through that first night. I did survive. The doubts then shifted to I may never walk on my own again, talk or ever go to the bathroom on my own again."

The accident left Lanci with a traumatic brain injury.

"When I had woken up from the coma, the nurse had asked me, 'Vincent, what school do you go to?' and I had said Pulaski Road Elementary School. So I was on a 5-year-old level, thinking I was still in elementary school, but I was at University of Tampa," Lanci remembered.

It took months for him to recover. Eventually, Lanci went back to school at the University of Tampa and graduated with a degree in finance before going on to earn his MBA.

For Lanci, the accident changed his outlook on life. He decided that making a lot of money wasn't a priority anymore.

"What good is a lot of money if you are not happy? What good is a lot of money if you are working all the time and not seeing your family are friends?" he said.

Lanci now spends his days motivating people to follow their dreams.

"I learned that nothing is promised and if you want something, you better go for it," he said.

Lanci has written three books on mental health. He says the accident put him on a course to make a difference in the lives of others. He hosts a mental health podcast and speaks to groups about being your best self.