who would later become his wife. >> why did he choose psychiatry? >> i was looking for something halfway between the reality of medicine and the elegance, if you like, of philosophy. so psychiatry was the obvious thing. >> it was there that one unexpected moment, a tragic diving accident, changed charles' life forever. >> it just hit at precisely the angle were all the force is transmitted to one spot, and that is the cervical vertebra which sever the spinal cord. >> when did you realize that the accident was life altering? >> the second it happened. >> despite his permanent paralysis, charles started his professors and classmates by graduating on time, near the top of his class. ultimately he decided the field wasn't for him, a career reversal he joked about on fox