‘I was given a second chance at life’

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For the next week, LaForgia remained in critical condition at Stony Brook, on a respirator with high fever, swelling, kidney failure and possible brain damage. On Jan. 9, after a medically induced coma and having lost 50 pounds, with Donna at his side, LaForgia moved his arm. Several hours later, he opened his eyes. Two months later, he would go home, having lost all of the toes on both feet and the arch and heel of his right foot. After five months of intense physical therapy, LaForgia was able to walk again, but with great difficulty.

After interviewing dozens of amputees and consulting with doctors, LaForgia decided to electively amputate his right leg below the knee in June of 2006. A few months after the surgery, he was fitted with custom-fabricated carbon graphite prosthetics courtesy of A Step Ahead, a prosthetics company in Hicksville. Twenty minutes later, LaForgia went from not being able to stand, to jogging in the parking lot. A few months after that, he was running. — first a 5K then several 10Ks.

On Nov. 1, 2009, he would run the New York City Marathon. And while completing this race just once was a monumental accomplishment, LaForgia ran it again this past Nov. 3, completing it in 5 hours, 45 minutes.

LaForgia, an ambassador for the National Meningitis Association, speaks to schools, businesses, community groups and the media about the need to vaccinate for meningitis. Although a rare illness with less than 2,000 cases reported annually, it can be fatal or leave many others — like LaForgia — without limbs. Teens and young adults are at an increased risk of contracting meningococcal disease because it spreads through respiratory droplets.

In the audience at Temple Emanu-El were the parents of Kimberly Coffey, a 17-year-old college-bound East Islip student who died in 2012 from the bacterial infection. As LaForgia spoke of the teenage girl just days away from her high school graduation and set to attend Molloy College, audience members were moved to tears.

“The leg I am wearing now allows me to touch many people,” LaForgia said, while motioning to his walking prosthetic. “I was given a second chance at life … I had to learn to walk again, but I never gave up. I chose yes.”

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