Teen recovers 1 year after breaking neck
A Seaford teen is close to making a full recovery after nearly dying on a trip to the beach a year ago. Nico Fiorello says his doctor had not even been able to assure him he would walk again after
News 12 Staff
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May 26, 2016, 2:06 AM
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Updated 2,892 days ago
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A Seaford teen is close to making a full recovery after nearly dying on a trip to the beach a year ago.
Nico Fiorello says his doctor had not even been able to assure him he would walk again after a serious accident at Jones Beach.
He dove headfirst into a wave and slammed his skull into a sandbar underwater.
The impact broke his neck and paralyzed him from the waist down. He almost drowned.
Rescuers rushed him to Nassau University Medical Center, where his parents say they saw splinters of bone in his neck.
After a year of surgeries and months of rehab, Fiorello made incredible progress. His parents say doctors were shocked when he began wiggling his toes. Then he began to walk.
"It was slim to none that I would make a full recovery," Fiorello says. "The odds were not in my favor, but those are just numbers."
He will graduate from Seaford High School with honors next month and will attend Hofstra University in the fall.
