Vincenzo Pisani of Carle Place gained new perspective on life after seizure and brain surgery

The pep rally was underway for the spring sports season, an upbeat occasion for the entire Carle Place student body. And then suddenly panic sliced through the gym.

Vincenzo Pisani felt pain and grabbed the railing on the side of the bleachers where he was sitting. The slender 5-11, 175-pound JV lacrosse and football player blacked out. There were those distinct movements associated with a Grand Mal seizure. Foam was coming from his mouth.

Jason Rodrigues was right there. Pisani’s friend and teammate was among those frantically yelling for help.

“It was a shock,” Rodrigues said. “It was a scary moment when it happened. All of our friends just got so concerned so fast . . . It was definitely a weird sight because he was uncontrollably moving.”

Teachers ran over to assist, the gym was cleared and Pisani woke up in the back of an ambulance. He was bound for surgery after an MRI revealed a brain tumor. This was April of 2023.

Now the sun was beating down on the Wheatley turf on this final Monday in April of 2026. One-on-one practice drills were underway for the Wheatley/Carle Place varsity boys lacrosse team. And there was this solid 6-4, 235-pound defenseman, staying close with an offensive player circling out from behind the cage, then forcing a weak, wide bounce shot.

“All right, Vincenzo,” said Paul Selhorn, the Wildfrogs’ coach. “Good job.”

Pisani has grown in more ways than one. He has gone from that 14-year-old freshman facing the scare of a young lifetime to a 17-year-old senior who has developed into a player headed for college lacrosse at SUNY Maritime and developed as an individual because of that health experience.

“I’m a little amazed,” said Pisani, the curved scar from his surgery visible on the left side of his head. “I like to sometimes think of what I used to look like. I have a picture on everything. It’s a picture of me in the hospital after my seizure. I look at skinny me and I see . . . in more ways the better person I’ve become.

“I’ve become more aware of just life and how it is, more appreciative of everything I’ve been gifted, not just by my family, but my friends, teachers, principals, just the good things they’ve all gifted me in life.”

Finding faith

His faith has become much more meaningful to him.

“I was always a Christian, but I never really practiced it,” Pisani said. “I was confirmed and I went to church maybe once a year. But I explain to people, when you go through something like that in life, you kind of look for something.”

 About 10 minutes before his surgery to remove the noncancerous tumor. Pisani found himself waiting alone in a room at NYU Langone in Manhattan.

“It was one of the first times in a long time I actually prayed,” he said. “I just asked God for help and guidance. After that, I started reading the Bible. I started getting into it. I really think that helped me become the man I am today.”

And who is that man, the one who’s always wearing a smile?

“He’s kind,” said Selhorn, not only his lacrosse coach but also the coach of the Carle Place varsity football team that had Pisani blocking at left guard in the fall. “He’s compassionate. He’s a leader. But he’s the nicest guy you’ll ever meet.”

Aidan Butt, another friend and teammate, can see the result of what Pisani experienced.

“For him, I think, he takes every day like it’s his last,” the senior midfielder said. “He goes full effort in everything because you never know. And just him always having a smile on his face makes everyone else around him happy.”

With the exception of opposing offensive threats, Pisani is always trying to be a positive for everyone around him.

“It probably developed more out of this situation,” said Antonia Pisani, Vincenzo’s mom. “. . . He has a new perspective. He’s always been such a sweet kid. He doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. He’s very, very nice to everybody. I think it was always there. But I think now going through what he went through, it just amplified all those behaviors.”

“He won ‘Everyone’s Best Friend’ as a [class] superlative for senior year [in the yearbook],” she added. “That’s just how he is. He makes everyone feel welcome. It doesn’t matter if you’re a freshman to a senior, if you’re popular or you’re not.”

Seizure, surgery and the comeback

Pisani moved with his family from Westbury to Carle Place when he was 7. In fourth grade, he started having what he called “weird” tingling sensations in the area of his right knee.

Despite doctor visits, Pisani said, “I never really knew what they were.”

The day of the pep rally, he was in the cafeteria. He felt the leg acting up and stayed still for about 20 minutes.

Then came the gathering that afternoon.

“I was sitting right against the end of the bleachers and it starts happening,” Pisani said. “I just remember leaning over to try to relieve the pain and just blacking out for what people said was eight minutes.”

It was 2:33 that afternoon. Antonia Pisani’s phone rang. It was the assistant principal.

“He told me that they were at a pep rally, and he was like, ‘And Vincenzo . . . ’ ” Antonia said. “And I was like, ‘What’s he going to say to me? Because I know Vincenzo is not going to be in any trouble. And he said, ‘Vincenzo had a seizure.’

“And I started screaming.”

Three months after the surgery, Vincenzo was participating in summer football workouts. He just wanted to play and be with his friends. That brought him happiness.

“So when parents would look at me and be like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe you have him playing football three months after brain surgery,’ I was like, ‘It was a discussion we obviously had with his surgeon and doctor,’ ” Antonia said. “He was physically OK. But I kept saying his mental health is just as important.’ ”

He still takes anti-seizure meds each day.

“One characteristic word that I keep thinking about him is 'perseverance,’ ” Selhorn said. “. . . He came back and said, ‘This is not going to stop me. I’m going to continue to play football and lacrosse.’ . . . I think he’s a great role model for other kids that are going through the same situation as he is.”

Pisani hit the weight room before his senior year. After starting for his 6-3 playoff team in football, he’s starting and defending well for his 9-3 lacrosse team.

“He’s been doing a fantastic job,” Selhorn said.

SUNY Maritime in the Bronx should be a good fit for lacrosse and his future career. Pisani wants to work on ships and be a captain someday.

“He’s been wanting to join the military; he couldn’t,” Antonia said. “So my husband [Christopher Pisani] took him to see Maritime in the fall and he loved it. And they spoke to the coach.”

Capt. Vincenzo Pisani would be a good-hearted commander.

“I like to inspire,” he said. “I try to spread goodness in this world. That’s my main goal in life at the end of this day. At the end of my life, I want to be looked back at as not someone who spread hate, [but who] spread love.”