A decided Massachusetts teen walked his highschool commencement stage Friday after sustaining a hockey damage final September that left him paralyzed from the waist down, WCVB reported.
Video posted to Twitter by @crobahh_1, seen beneath, exhibits 18-year-old Jake Thibeault rising from his wheelchair with the assistance of two classmates after which strolling the Milton Academy commencement stage with a walker as spectators meet his inspiring second with thunderous applause.
A promise made and stored as @MiltonAcad_puck participant Jake Thibeault walks to simply accept his diploma immediately in entrance of classmates and teammates simply 9 months after a devastating on ice damage. pic.twitter.com/jmSr4GGiSS
— Bulldog Hockey U18 (@crobahh_1) June 10, 2022
The teenager had set the aim of strolling his commencement stage months in the past after struggling a pair of damaged vertebrae and a “small brain bleed” throughout a hockey recreation, WCVB reported. Thibeault’s damage occurred on September 4 when he hit the boards head-first after a collision “with an opposing player,” the Patriot Ledger reported.
“The shift before my injury, I skated down the left side, cut to the middle, I scored, and then I remember going on faceoff, and then I don’t remember much from there,” the teenager informed the outlet.
He was taken to Umass Memorial Medical Heart in Worcester, MA, the place rods and screws had been loaded into his backbone to regular it, and a dialog with a physician threw a grim forecast on the long run. Thibeault mentioned he was knowledgeable that his probabilities of strolling once more had been “low,” however the Fitchburg resident is a scrapper.
“I’ve been kind of an underdog in hockey and in multiple things where I’ve had to go that extra mile,” he informed the Patriot Ledger in February. “I’ve had to work a little extra harder. Those years of having to fight hard for what I want has helped me to now face the biggest challenge yet and, hopefully, I have to ever face.”
After leaving Memorial Medical Heart, he went to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Charlestown, the place he informed the Patriot Ledger he cast lifelong friendships with the caring workers. Following his time at Spaulding, Thuebeault “spent several months of outpatient rehabilitation at Journey Forward in Canton” with the intention of strolling at commencement.
“It’s definitely on my mind and we’ll see,” Thibeault informed the Patriot Ledger in March. “We got a couple of months at least, so I got to keep grinding away at it.”
Thibeault, a younger man who merely is aware of find out how to persevere, noticed his aim materialize Friday.
Senior Jake Thibeault crossed the commencement stage immediately at Milton Academy after struggling a spinal twine damage enjoying hockey final fall. #7News
Picture courtesy: Mike Thibeault pic.twitter.com/zcLB1cUKBp— Keke Vencill (@kekevencill) June 11, 2022
“(It was) just an overwhelming feeling of being proud for Jake,” the teenager’s father, Mike Thiebault, informed WCVB. “(I was) never more honored to be his father.”
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