For anyone who knows me or knows my family, you have heard this story. You have heard this story so many times that you are probably sick of hearing this story, but this is a story that I believe people need to read. This is a story that you never think will happen to you, will never happen to anyone you know and will never happen, especially, to your brother. This is the story of how a 16 year old's life got turned upside down.
For those of you that are new to this story, I am going to start at the beginning. Tell you who my brother is and why coming to terms with what happened to him is so difficult for our family.
On June 25th 1998, Dominic John Fiorini was born. He was given his first football that day and the second he clutched on to it, everyone knew Dominic was going to be a star. Fast forwarding a couple of years later and he is your run of the mill 4-year-old toddler. He is running, jumping, crashing into everything, he has ants in his pants and the doctors told my parents that he was going to be over six feet tall. He begins playing flag football at the YMCA down the road from us and at 4 years old, he was so fast that no one could catch him. As he continues to grow up, his love for sports only grows larger. Soccer, baseball, basketball, lacrosse, Karate, skiing, snowboarding; you name it and Dominic not only did it, but he excelled in it. Around age 8 or 9 Dominic grew bored with the sports that were non-contact, he lived for the thrill of being tackled or tackling another player, it became obvious that the only sport to satisfy him was football.
Football became much more of a sport in our household, it was a way of life. Dominic was talented, he was fast and he could throw the ball and get it where it needed to be constantly. Once he aged out of pop warner football and graduated to high school football, everyone knew his name. He was the starting quarterback for our high school’s freshman football team when he was in eighth grade and when he was a freshman. He got bumped to the varsity team at the end of his freshman year and was the second string quarterback all of his sophomore year. It was tough going from watching my brother be the star all of his life to sitting on the bench for most of the season. He made up for sitting on the bench when he was played and proved himself to his team and his coaches. The few times Dominic was able to go in, one of two things would happen. One, because of how fast he is, he would do a quarterback sneak get through the other teams line and score a touchdown or; two, he would throw the ball to his best friend (who happened to be a wide receiver), who would complete the pass and go for the touchdown. More times than not, the wide receiver would score, which is more than the starting quarterback at the time could do. Ending his sophomore season and starting his junior year, Dominic was given the position as starting quarterback and that’s when everything changed.
It was a rough season for our school’s football team. Many of our star players had season ending injuries that left our line weak and lacking. Dominic was having a great season, proving himself as a junior (only 16 years old at the time) being the starting quarterback, until the night of homecoming. The entire school had showed up to watch our new and improved football team take home the win against Henninger. It was the end of the second quarter and number 2 on the opposing team looked my brother in the eye and told him "I'm gonna mess you the f- up”. In a matter of seconds, the play had started and the ball had just left his finger when the whistle blew and everyone took a knee. As usual, whenever this was to occur, I searched the field of green and blue jerseys looking for number 17. The panic set in as I couldn’t find it. My heart dropped to my stomach as I watched my dad run down the field, my heart dropped to my toes as the text "that's your brother" came across my screen and as a cheerleader was screaming my name. Running down the bleachers and onto the field had to be the scariest moment of my life. "He has brain damage, his spine is damaged, he'll never walk again", was going through my head as I approached my sobbing mother. It felt like hours- 15 minutes in real life- had passed by the time they were getting the stretcher. He was moving, he was screaming, but not in pain. Screaming because of how mad he was, screaming the number of the guy that had tackled him, screaming knowing something was wrong. I had never heard a stadium more quiet. My dad's face was like stone as my brother was lifted onto the stretcher and into the ambulance, Dominic always being strong gave me the biggest smile and a thumbs up as they closed the door... "It's his leg... His leg" they kept saying. 15 minutes later and we're following the ambulance to the hospital. The car ride was silent. All I could hear was "his leg... It's his leg."
Three hours later his pads and jersey had been removed, the x-rays had been taken and the news delivered to us. "Torn LCL, PCL, MCL, dislocated knee, no feeling in his foot shows that there is nerve damage, we won't know more until he has surgery... He'll never play football again." The doctor making eye contact with the white wall behind us left as a fat tear rolled down my brother's face. The first time he had cried the entire night, my dad's face showed no emotion as my mom began sobbing again. As the door was closing from the doctor; ten sweaty, smelly, amazing football players stormed in with big smiles on their face. Ten of my brother's best friends showed up for him that night, didn't go home to shower, didn't go out and party with their team (which was the plan), but showed up for their quarterback and stayed with him until he fell asleep. Every person that showed up for Dominic, every player that played their heart out for him, came over while he was home bound, are all heroes. I have never seen loyalty like I saw over the next few months from every single player on that team.
Over the next few months, Dominic had many surgeries all delivering the same news. After his first surgery, the news was devastating; he would have a drop foot for the unseeable future due to his nerve being damaged so badly from his knee dislocating.. Meaning, he would have to be in a brace for the rest of his life and sports wasn’t in the realm of reality. His surgeon had to put his leg back together with multiple screws and metal plates crushing his dreams of ever being in the Marine Corps or Special Operations. The next few surgeries were more or less the same, the doctors being optimistic but knowing the nerve was not regenerating as quickly as they had hoped for. He had no feeling in his foot and a brace was still a necessity. Doctors told Dominic that graduating junior year wasn’t something they saw he could accomplish with the amount of rest, PT and surgeries he would need that year. They told him he wouldn’t be able to run, jump, swim or ski ever again. But Dominic’s optimism never wavered. He always had his big smile on his face, he never told anyone he was in pain, he walked (well tried too) as soon as he could, he chose crutches over the wheel chair as soon as he possibly could and he never asked for help. It is a year and a half later and my brother accomplished everything the doctors told him he wouldn’t. He graduated his junior year of high school, he can walk and run and swim and jump. He throws the football with his friends outside, he swims in our pool and does flips off of our diving board. He got his license and he works out harder than any other 17 year old kid I know. This past year would have been his final year as the quarterback for the CNS Northstar football team, but instead he watched another guy play his position. Dominic went to every single practice and game, come rain or shine, and stood on the side lines cheering his team on. He works hard to get back all of the muscle he lost in the year that he wasn’t able to move, he works hard to make sure that in the future he can walk without a brace. He graduated from PT and does exercises by himself every day designed for his foot. For now, he still walks with a limp, has to wear a brace whenever he has shoes on and sleeps with a special boot to keep his foot up right. His dreams of being a Marine were crushed, his back up plan of going to college to play football was crushed but he got accepted to every single college he applied to and is planning on going to school, this fall, for business.
Dominic doesn’t view himself as handicapped or disabled. He doesn’t view himself as any less of a person than before his injury. He was the model of health, he was the most active kid I knew and had big dreams. This could have happened to anybody, this could have ruined anybody else’s life but Dominic did not let it ruin his. I believe that because how amazing and supportive his teammates were, that Dominic was able to bounce back the way that he was. He is the strongest person I know and he will continue to grow stronger each and every day.
