6 months ago
It was November, 2006; a chilly night at Saint Gregory the Great's Church in Williamsville. It was packed with prayers for 14 year old nick Giangreco who had a massive stroke.
About a week before the service, Nick was on the sidelines of a Saint Joseph's Collegiate Institute freshman football game when he collapsed. He couldn't speak and at first could only blink to communicate.
"Honestly, I didn't think he was going to make it," said Paul Giangreco, Nick's dad. "I mean, that's how bad it was."
The stroke didn't cause any cognitive damage, but Nick had to re-learn just about everything else. After nearly a year, Nick could walk, even speak. He couldn't play ball like he once did or swim like he loved, but 2 On Your Side met up with him about nine months after his stroke to see how he was doing.
That was Nick in 2007. Now, he's in a summer program at Erie County Medical Center, but not for rehabilitation of his own. He interns in the rehab center at ECMC as part of the summer youth program, the same place he spent so much time after he had his stroke.
"They helped me so much in the beginning and I just want to really help them just, I want to repay them for what they did to me and I thought it would be a great opportunity to come to ECMC, a number one trauma hospital and I think, what a great place to come back to," said Nick.
"I worked with him for this whole duration for acute rehab here," said Senior Occupational Therapist Erika Julyan.
She says Nick is changing the lives of other patients, some who are in the same situation as he was.
"It's so hard to see that there's a light at the end of the tunnel, that things will get better," said Julyan. "But when that person is standing in front of them, they can say yes, I can do this. I'm going to get better."
Nick says the stroke completely changed his path in life, but believe it or not, he says it has changed for the better.
"Before and then afterwards, I just totally got a taste of what people usually never see in their life and I got to see that and it totally changed direction of what I am and I'm fully grateful for that, so, it was totally a blessing in disguise," Nick said.
Nick's passions aren't sports anymore. He loves reading and learning. And in college he says he wants to study neuroscience and philosophy.
His dad calls him the miracle boy. Nick agrees. But what you can't see on camera is just how proud Nick is of himself, what he has been through and where he is going. He's excited to be here, living life to the fullest every single day.
"I just, I love my life right now, yeah," said Nick.
Doctors never figured out what caused Nick's stroke. His dad says Nick never had a traumatic injury of any kind. Nick works out twice a day with a trainer and is looking forward to his senior year at Saint Joe's.
