LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) — A 15-year-old high school athlete, left paralyzed after diving headfirst into a sandbar, walked out of a Long Beach hospital Wednesday to the cheers of dozens of supporters.
Alessandro Apuzzo suffered a severe spinal injury during the Fourth of July holiday and has spent the last four months learning how to walk again at Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital. Wednesday morning, dozens of his family members, friends, medical staff and even the Long Beach lifeguards who saved him, gathered outside the hospital to congratulate him.
“To see all the people who supported me, it’s awesome,” Apuzzo said. “It just really makes me happy.”
Apuzzo, who attends Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, is a standout water polo player. The injury to his neck often leaves victims paralyzed for life.
“He suffered three burst fractures of his cervical spine,” explained Dr. Kimberly BeDell. “He had an incomplete quadriplegia.”
She said Apuzzo’s recovery has been difficult but that his athletic drive has propelled him through setbacks and frustrations, something his father agrees with.
“His recovery in the last month has been absolutely crazy. It’s amazing,” said Jose Santos Loria of his son. “It is Thanksgiving, so I can say… thank you to this community for all the support that we have received.”
Doctors say Apuzzo still has at least six more months of therapy ahead of him, but say his outlook is good.
The teen athlete agrees.
“I hope to get back to doing what I love, being in the water, surfing, bodyboarding, all of that,” he told Eyewitness News, adding “And Happy Thanksgiving.”
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