Thursday, October 1, 2026
While several residents are getting ready for a Halloween scare, the Llewellyn family is still dealing with a scare after one of their own — Lenny Llewellyn was tragically injured in a diving accident about two months ago. After sustaining nearly fatal neck and spinal cord damages, Lenny is now facing physical and personal challenges during his recuperation.
Though doctors performed two surgeries to begin repairing his vertebrae, after the operation, Llewellyn was still partly paralyzed from the chest down and is wheelchair dependent, but he is beginning to slowly show signs of improvement, according to his brother-in-law, Warren Hutchinson.
“He is a great guy,” said Hutchinson, who is also spearheading a fundraiser for him on Oct. 24. “The doctors said he has a good chance of walking again in about a year or so, but it will be a long road.”
So far, it has been a difficult journey for the 43-year-old Malverne father and husband, who grew up in Lynbrook. On Aug. 8, Llewellyn hit his head at the bottom of a family friend’s pool after jumping into the water, resulting in severe neck trauma.
“His fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh vertebrae in his lower neck were damaged,” Hutchinson said. “His spinal cord was injured, but not broken or severed. He had to have steel rods put in his neck to support the injury.” Hutchinson said that Llewellyn spent almost two weeks at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, where he initially began treatment following the accident.
Upon arriving at the hospital after the accident, Llewellyn could not move his arms and his spine was very swollen. Llewellyn, a former Nassau County corrections officer and a recent ex-captain of the Lynbrook Fire Department, spends a lot of time recruiting young men into the fire department.
