CALIFORNIA– It’s hard for Alex Ruiz to move around his home in Temecula. But hes just happy to be back home again, after spending six long weeks in the hospital.
“Too long, I think that it’s the only way I can describe it,” Ruiz said.
Ruiz was injured during a football game in early October. The Linfield Christian quarterback says he heard something pop when he was hit, and thought he might have torn his ACL.
“As I looked to my left on the ground, my leg was next to me. And I knew it was a little more than that.”
He underwent multiple surgeries, but doctors told him he might never recover feeling or movement in his foot. They gave him a choice. Learn to live with limited mobility, or amputate his foot. His football coach says that was hard to hear.
“He’s like my son. when your child is hurting and there’s nothing you can do about it, that’s tough,” Coach Dechon Burns said.
Ruiz says it was a tough decision. But ultimately, he realized amputation offered him more of a future.
“There are so many prosthetics now made for running, made for daily life, made for surfing. I think that’s amazing that I can still have opportunities to do that.”
His mom says she’s amazed by how well her son has accepted and embraced his new fate.
“He has a bigger man card than I gave him credit for. It was hard,” Shirley Ruiz said.
She knows they have a long road ahead of them. But says their faith, and the continued support of their community, will get them through.
“This is going to be a completely different life, I think Im ready for it, I think at this point, it’s just going forward,” Ruiz said.
Doctors say they will wait until Ruiz is a little more healed before performing the amputation.
