The family of a teenager pulled from a fiery crash in Staten Island in June 2022 didn't think he would survive. Jessie Headlund, a retired firefighter jumped into action and saved now 19-year-old Anthony Mercado’s life that day, but it was clear that Mercado was hurt very badly.
The New York Post reported that Mercado’s injuries were so significant that he was unable to speak and was paralyzed after the crash. But with the help of the medical staff at Staten Island University Hospital, the teen has made a truly miraculous recovery.
More from CafeMom: FDNY Firefighter Dies Saving Daughter Drowning in Riptide at the Jersey Shore
Headlund is a retired firefighter.
He was headed to the gym the day of the crash and realized he had forgotten his water bottle. He decided to stop at a store to buy one. That is when he just happened to see Mercado’s 2008 Cadillac CTS engulfed in flames, Staten Island Advance reported in 2022. At first, he took a video but soon saw someone in the driver’s seat and sprang into action.
By the time he got the teen out of the vehicle, the passenger side was on fire. “When I got him to where I could, I realized that it wasn’t far enough, so I had to fall back on the ground," Headlund recalled.
Mercado was rushed to the hospital.
At the time of the accident, he was just 17 years old. Emergency personnel rushed him to the hospital in critical care, the Post reported.
Dr. Jonathan Rasouli of Staten Island University Hospital told the newspaper he doubted Mercado’s recovery as his injuries were significant.
“He had bruises on the brain, there was bleeding, he had a significant blood clot that was pressing on his brain, too," he said.
Doctors put a breathing tube down Mercado’s throat and put him into a medically induced coma.
It took more than two months, but Mercado began to regain his speech.
His first word was “mom,” which made his mother, Ori Boci-Mercado, emotional. Mercado reportedly worked on his speech and he could use sentences by the end of August. After he was able to talk, the next challenge was relearning how to walk.
“We didn’t use a wheelchair,” Mercado said. “I walked around with my right arm over my mom’s shoulder. She carried me and I walked little by little over and over and over until I got to walk by myself. That’s what we did.”
Even as he made progress, there was more recovery ahead.
Mercado explained to the Post that for the months following the crash, life was tough. “For the first six months, I was not really mentally there,” he said.
In October 2022, Rasouli and Dr. Netanel Ben-Shalom performed a difficult surgery called a decompressive craniectomy. Rasouli told the Post that physicians had to remove "virtually half of his skull to allow the brain to swell out and allow us to fix the fractures that were there.”
Mercado was “essentially on life support,” Rasouli told the newspaper. “He had a very tough recovery from the surgery and the trauma he sustained.”
More from CafeMom: Unborn Baby Survives Car Crash That Kills 2 Oldest Siblings After Car Flips as Family Drove Home
Mercado plans to drive again soon.
He told the Post he learned a valuable lesson, however. “I learned that cars are thousands of pounds of a weapon that can kill you at any moment," he said.
His family feels blessed that he is alive. His mother told Staten Island Advance that she will be eternally grateful to Headlund for his bravery and for the physicians who have helped along the way.
“We want people to know that there are amazing people in this world. Jessie is a hero. The people at Staten Island University Hospital are heroes. They are all phenomenal human beings," she said.
