DETROIT – A teenager who lost his leg while helping crash victims on I-96 in Detroit is back to running after receiving a new blade.
Local 4 received video of Sean English running on a track. You can watch the video below.
Sean runs for first time since losing leg
In December, seven months after his dreams of running in college vanished when he was hurt helping crash victims on I-96 in Detroit, Sean took his first steps.
Sean lost his leg after he and his parents watched a car full of teenagers flip over on I-96. When they raced to help, another car hit him at the crash scene.
Part of Sean's right leg had to be amputated, and Local 4 has tracked his recovery and determination to get back to racing.
"Just to see him -- I knew he would run again -- but just to see him, it was amazing," said Peggy English, Sean's mother.
"I would like to do a bunch of road races, marathons, you name it," Sean said. "Anything running, I'm going to stay doing it."
"Throughout this entire path, he's never asked, 'Why me?'" Peggy English said. "He's never been bitter. His outlook has been tremendous."
Local 4 was there when Sean took his first steps:
"It was incredible to see him walking," Peggy English said. "I'm very proud of him."
"My therapist was limiting me because my hip was bothering me," Sean said. "We can do little jumping things and I was doing good with jumping and I was, like, 'All right, let's start running.'
"Being a runner, it was good to get that running high back. Where you just feel happy while you're running, and while I was running, I was flying in my head. Then I saw the video, and I was, like, 'I'm going 2 mph.' I thought I was going 20."
"He's attacked this whole event like an athlete," said Sean English Sr., Sean's father. "We're extremely proud."
"Hopefully coming soon I will be able to run like I thought I did," Sean said.
"My dad started putting him in races when he was in kindergarten, and by the age of 3, he was beating me," said Meghan English, Sean's sister. "Just to see him back, doing the fundamentals, I know he's going to be back and beating me once again."
"Luckily I didn't fall because that would be a different video that we'd be showing," Sean said.
What's next for Sean?
"It's not going to be long before I'm yelling at him to not run in the house," Peggy English said.
"I'm looking forward to trusting my prosthetic more," Sean said. "It's definitely difficult putting my foot down and not knowing exactly where it is because I can't feel it. But I'm looking forward to working towards it, and it should be fun.
"I always say, the bad times make the good times better, so I might be feeling this pain now, but in five years from now, when I'm walking around pain-free, it's going to be a lot better because I struggled for a long time.
"When I do start competing in the spring, I'm looking forward to it. I'm not going to say I'm going to be knocking my dad's times out of the way, but I will say I'll do all right."