MSJ student back to class
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Josh Scaralia smiles during prayer services with other MSJ classmates, teachers and students from Christ the King School to welcome him back after his injury. Vyto Starinskas / Rutland Herald |
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By Cristina Kumka Staff Writer - Published: February 9, 2010
Doctors said Mount St. Joseph Academy's Josh Scaralia wouldn't return to school and his college career would be put on hold.
On Monday, he was at school doing calculus.
"Josh is back," mom Kathi Scaralia said at the school Monday afternoon.
The bleak predictions were made before the West Rutland teen made an "astounding" recovery from a traumatic brain injury he suffered after being hit by a car Dec. 30, Kathi Scaralia said.
And, "what they (the doctors) didn't know was the number of people praying for him," she said.
Students and teachers from MSJ and Christ the King School filled the academy's chapel Monday morning to welcome back the football player, lacrosse starter and student actor to school.
Scaralia was flown to New Hampshire's Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center the night of the accident with a broken nose, fractured skull and two blood clots in his brain, Kathi Scaralia said.
For weeks, students said the rosary each afternoon as their own vigil. They wore duplicates of Scaralia's football jersey regularly. They fed the family's chickens and cleaned the Scaralia home. And the school community raised money to help his family travel to and from the hospital. It was all in the hope that the power of prayer would heal one of their own.
According to MSJ Principal Paolo Zancanaro, there was little doubt among anyone that it wouldn't help.
"I think we had a miracle here," Zancanaro said. "In fact, I know we did … not only the physical but the outpouring of love and understanding," he said. "When someone is missing, we're out of sync … through love we can work to restore what's been lost."
Scaralia was at school Monday learning a better way to re-train his brain for calculus. He said now it takes him longer to solve problems.
Other than deep scars around his head, visible through his thick black hair, the only evident effects of the crash are his inability to taste the sweetness of a cookie and the constant ringing in his right ear, Scaralia said.
He's not in pain and doesn't remember what happened the day he was accidentally hit in the road, leaving his girlfriend's basketball game held at Rutland Middle School.
"I remember opening the doors of the gym and then waking up in the hospital bed wondering what I was doing and who I was," Scaralia said.
According to Kathi Scaralia, no one expected Josh to be up, walking and studying this early in his recovery — 41 days today after being hit.
Doctors said he wouldn't be able to remember, he would have a hard time learning new things, he wouldn't speak properly and his personality wouldn't be the same, she said.
One of Kathi Scaralia's most cherished moments was seeing her son walk to her again from down a hospital hallway.
"God wants to answer your prayers," she said. "Believe and you will receive … act like it's already been given to you."
Josh said he won't play contact sports again, per doctors' orders.
But he said he will live a grateful life with a sense that he was saved and a greater understanding of the importance of helping others.
Scaralia mentioned the hundreds of cards he received in the hospital — from people he didn't know in Texas, New Hampshire and an orphanage in Tanzania run by a Catholic sister.
"Well I'm grateful to be alive and I love God for letting me be alive," he said.
"At the rehabilitation hospital in Spaulding there were kids in the same boat as I was, but I had a rosary said for me here every day."
cristina.kumka@rutlandherald.com
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