PHOENIX, June 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — A Southern California high school student recently received his high school diploma while hospitalized in Arizona with paralyzing injuries from a diving accident in March.
Dylen Damico-Rager, who is currently undergoing intensive neuro-rehabilitation at Barrow Neurological Institute located at Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, was greeted by his high school faculty, friends and family who traveled from California for the special cap and gown graduation ceremony.
“It’s really cool and special that my high school faculty and my medical team are doing this for me,” says Damico-Rager, 18. “It’s not the way I planned my graduation, but I’m so grateful for their support and the opportunity to wear my cap and gown and receive my diploma.”
Damico-Rager was scheduled to graduate with his class at Cypress High School in Cypress, California on May 25. However, on March 25, he suffered a severe spinal cord injury and became paralyzed after making a shallow dive into a river near Yuma, Arizona while on vacation.
“After the impact of the dive, Dylen lost movement in his arms and legs, was carried in the current and nearly drowned,” says Sarah Samayoa, Damico-Rager’s mother. “Thankfully, his friends were able to find him and begin CPR. Paramedics on scene resuscitated him.”
Damico-Rager was airlifted to the Level-I Trauma Center at St. Joseph’s in Phoenix. St….
