Courage Comes in Many Guises

Lieutenant John Cagno is a decorated firefighter in North Providence, Rhode Island. A troubled kid who grew up without a father, there was a void in his life he couldn't fill until he was 16 and began volunteering as a firefighter. This was when he found what had been missing—a feeling he could do something worthwhile with his life.

Two years later, he became a paid firefighter. One day, he was climbing an aerial ladder to get to the third floor of a burning building. There were high-tension transmission wires overhead. Although Cagno never actually touched the power line, he came close enough to send 14,000 volts of electricity through his left hand.

He didn't know that he was burned badly over his entire body until the next morning in the hospital.

"I was bandaged everywhere, and the pain was unbearable," he says. "I prayed to God every night to take me to Him. I wasn't even sure if I still had all my limbs intact."

Then one night there was a show on TV about a woman gymnast who had one arm amputated below the elbow. She was performing amazing feats on the uneven parallel bars. "I was facing great uncertainty at that time," says Cagno. "I didn't know which way things were going to go. But I looked at her and thought she's had the courage to go on. She's been injured, she's had tough times, but she's enjoying her life and accomplishing great things." What Cagno saw in that young woman helped him through the most difficult times of his recovery.

"I looked at her and I realized that she made a tremendous handicap into nothing more than an inconvenience," he says. "So I mirrored her actions. I decided to look at my injuries as a little inconvenience. She inspired me and I suddenly knew that no matter what my outcome, I'd be okay. It gave me the strength I needed to keep fighting.

"I was in the hospital for five months," he says. "I came home and couldn't do anything for myself. My mother or my sister had to help me take care of every bodily function. It was painful and humiliating. But my biggest concern was when I could get back to being a firefighter. I didn't know if I would be able to. Would I be able to use my hands? Would I freak out? I didn't know, but I slowly fought my way back."

There is no failure for the man who realizes his power, who never knows when he is beaten; there is no failure for the determined endeavor; the unconquerable will. There is no failure for the man who gets up every time he falls, who rebounds like a rubber ball, who persists when everyone else gives up, who pushes on when everyone else turns back.

—Orison Swett Marden,
founder of Success Magazine

Unfortunately, John Cagno's trials were not yet over, and he would find himself tested again. Several years after Cagno was reinstated as a firefighter, he was riding in one of the town's older fire trucks. The door, which wasn't closing properly, opened as the truck turned the corner, and Cagno fell out. He was able to hook his arm through the window so that he didn't fall under the wheels, but his knee got caught between the door and the jam. The result was that he developed Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, which is a damaged nerve that causes intense pain and swelling.

"Of course, I was given pain medication," says Cagno. "But because I've had so many operations during my life, I'm immune to almost everything. So when the doctors told me to take one or two pills, I took three or four. And then three or four again. Pretty soon, no matter how I tried to deny it, I had a problem.

"Just because I'm a firefighter, people think I have a lot of courage. But when I'm fighting a fire, when I face danger in a professional situation, I have tools in place to help me deal with it. When I was faced with drug dependency, I didn't have those tools in place to help give me courage. I had to reach deep inside and confront my demons. I had to face my obstacles and understand my options. I had to confront this situation head on.

John Cagno reached deep inside and admitted his problem. "I could run into a burning building every day of the week," he says. "And I did. But when it came to identifying, to stopping my denial, and then to confronting a problem like that, I put it off and put it off. But I could only put it off so long before I knew that if I didn't do something about it, it would destroy me."

He found a counselor in whom he could confide. The counselor advised him to enter a treatment center.

"When I was injured the first time, the fire chief came in and told me, 'This won't make sense to you now, but things happen for a reason. Something's going to come out of this because you didn't die. You have a purpose, and eventually you'll know what that purpose is.'"

And though he didn't know it at the time, he now says that the purpose was so that he could use his experiences in a positive way, and so he could give hope, strength, and understanding to others. And he has much greater empathy for people who are struggling to find the courage they need to overcome the stumbling blocks of life.

"I'll put it this way," he says. "If there were two doors and somebody said to me, 'Behind door number one is a raging fire. We don't know how bad it is, we don't know if the floor is safe, and we don't know if the ceiling is going to come down and behind door number two is confronting drug dependency.' I'd pick the fire every time."

"I've done a lot of things in my career that other people have judged courageous. I've saved people who were in cardiac arrest. I've rescued people from burning buildings, from horrifying car wrecks. But I think the greatest rescue I ever made was of myself."

Let it never be forgotten that glamour is not greatness; applause is not fame; prominence is not eminence. The man of the hour is not apt to be the man of the ages. A stone may sparkle, but that does not make it a diamond; people may have money, but that does not make them a success. It is what the unimportant people do that really counts and determines the course of history. The greatest forces in the universe are never spectacular. Summer showers are more effective than hurricanes, but they get no publicity. The world would soon die but for the fidelity, loyalty and consecration of those whose names are unhonored and unsung.

—James R. Sizoo,
writer