FOXBOROUGH - Two years ago, Daniel Iagatta III was hard at work training for a triathlon when the course of his life took a major detour.
The former Foxboro call firefighter and EMT, who had just completed paramedic training, was struck by a car while on a training ride in Walpole.
"I was rendered a quadriplegic," said Iagatta, sitting in a sophisticated electric wheelchair in the kitchen of his Beach Street home recently.
The accident resulted in challenges Iagatta could have allowed to beat him. But that is not what he is all about, say those who know him. And for his resolve in overcoming his disability, he was recently honored by Easter Seals.
"You have to show an effort to help yourself and not sit there and have a 'poor me' pity party," he said.
Now, Iagatta is tackling another challenge - one related to the divorce he underwent while recovering from his accident - with as much determination as he has tackled his physical challenges.
Two weeks ago, the former plumber was prepared to be escorted out of his childhood house - which he purchased from his mother after his father died - by police, according to a divorce decree that Iagatta and supporters insist was unjustly made by the probate court.
After enlisting the help of Gov. Deval Patrick's office, the eviction slated for Friday, Jan. 26, was delayed for at least two weeks while efforts are made to stop it permanently.
Iagatta's ex-wife, Michelle, did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Her attorney, Patricia Gorman, of Gorman & Greenberg in Dedham, said, "He (Iagatta) told her from the very beginning she would get nothing. This is not just about a man in a chair. There's another person here."
Iagatta, whose 12-year marriage was declared over July 7 by Judge Beverly Weinger Boorstein, has appealed to both U.S. District Court and the Supreme Judicial Court to intervene, but to no avail.
Despite the challenges he faces, meanwhile, Iagatta has not let himself be idle.
In December, he regained his driver's license and is able to get around in a specially equipped van he was given last month following a fund-raiser put together by friends and supporters, including Rodman Ford.
Iagatta is able to drive because, he explained, quadriplegics have differing degrees of movement, depending on what part of their spinal cords were injured. The term doesn't necessarily mean total paralysis, but rather that four limbs are affected to some degree.
He described what it's like: "You know how you feel when you bury yourself in the sand at the beach and you can't move? That's what it feels like," he said.
The 43-year-old father of two boys has also earned a teaching certificate from the University of Massachusetts at the vocational high school level for plumbing, and he wants to work on a master's to add to the degree in fire science he has from Providence College.
"I was the first person ever who went through the certification program (at UMass) as a quadriplegic," he said. "I felt like I accomplished something not only for me, but the disabled community.'
Iagatta, who gives motivational presentations to kids, believes in leading by example - a lesson he has tried to instill in his sons, Dan Iagatta IV, 13, and Dylan, who will turn 11 on Feb. 13.
"I say, 'Don't go by what you say, go by what you do,' " he said.
Iagatta and his supporters in the Massachusetts chapter of the international organization Fathers 4 Justice, or F4J, are in the midst of bringing attention to what the fathers say are inequities in the probate court - issues that Iagatta insists led to an unfair divorce decree in his case, and that threaten to put him out of his home.
The divorce judgment specifies he cover his ex-wife's legal fees. He was also ordered to pay her $127,000 by Aug. 31 for property division either by buying out her share of the house or selling it outright.
None of that has happened. The mortgage is in arrears and Iagatta is hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, and he has been declared in contempt by Boorstein.
For her part, Michelle Iagatta must pay her ex-husband $100 a week in alimony so long as they both live, or until he remarries. Gorman said, "She's been sending him a check every week. He has not cashed one. She would just like to be able to get the money (from the house) so she and the boys can move on."
Iagatta ran a plumbing and heating business in Foxborough for 23 years before his accident, and he was a call lieutenant with Foxboro Fire for 14 years.
Immediately following his accident, Iagatta was unable to give responses of more than four or five words, he said. Now he has full command of his verbal communication and is able to do things like manipulate controls on his wheelchair and hold a cup. He's been told that, at this point, "What you see is what you get."
But he said he is not one to settle for that.
"I'm a firm believer in expectation. If you put that expectation in your head (that it's not going to change), you're not going to change," he said.
Neighbor Maria Eisenhauer, who grew up with Iagatta, said he is an inspiration who continues to be involved.
"He still volunteers as a teacher of CCD at St. Mary's twice a week. He's a lector at the church. He still does photos of the sports kids," she said.
Iagatta said that's just who he is. "Life is a participator sport, not a spectator sport," he said. "Just point me in the direction and I will give 110 percent."
He is the recent recipient of the Easter Seals Massachusetts Personal Achievement Award. It was given "due to his amazing comeback from a debilitating accident," according to Kara Della Vecchia of Easter Seals Massachusetts.
He has received help from the Easter Seals Assistive Technology Program, which provided him with voice-recognition software and microphones that allow him to dictate letters, maintain an electronic calendar, exchange e-mails and surf the Internet. The program also provided him with wireless environmental controls so he can turn on lights before he goes into a room and control his radio and air conditioner without help.
"I do a lot of advocating for Easter Seals. They've been real helpful in setting me up," he said.
He is hoping to compete in the bicycle portion of a triathlon in Sharon this summer, using a special hand cycle.
"I'm praying that things get resolved (with the court) and my kids are able to participate," he said last Friday. "We were always doing races together before."
Heather McCarron can be reached at hmccarron@cnc.com or 508-634-7584.
