The Argentinian ballet dancer who was badly hurt in a rollerskating accident last month has been released from hospital – but she knows she has a long road of recovery ahead.
Lucila Munaretto visited her friends at Pacific DanceArts today, six weeks after an accident doctors feared would leave her unable to dance again.
“It was the best feeling,” she said.
“It will be better if I don’t need the crutches, but getting in and watching my friends is good.”
The accident happened on August 13. Munaretto, a 21-year-old ballerina who came to Vancouver on a scholarship in 2012, was rollerskating in North Vancouver when she ran the stop sign and collided with a mini-van.
Police say they were told by witnesses that she was not wearing a safety helmet at the time of the crash.
She suffered significant injury and trauma to her head and body, the kind of injuries that are devastating for a promising dancer.
But after a week in a coma, she awoke, and a surgeon has called the lack of nerve damage in her jaw a “miracle.”
WATCH: Leigh Kjekstad’s report on Munaretto last month
“Knowing there were so many people with good vibes, makes me feel thankful, and that gives me a lot of power to get up and go,” she says.
Munaretto will have to continue to visit Lions Gate Hospital four times a week for an out-patient rehab program. Friends from Coastal City Ballet and Pacific Dance Arts have rallied around her, raising more than $40,000 to help cover some of her rehabilitation costs.
So far Munaretto has not been cleared to begin her dance rehab.
“I wish I could be doing that, but I know I can’t. I need to wait, be patient, do therapy and wait a little bit more,” she said.
“I’ve already waited a lot, so waiting some more won’t bother me.”
– With files from Yuliya Talmazan and The Canadian Press
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