Teenage double amputee surprises loved ones by walking at graduation

PLEASANT GROVE, AL -Teenager Carlos Bell's story begins on a stretch of I-20/59 in Jefferson County. The ending is yet to be written. "When it first happened I was trying to be strong for everybody else," said Bell. On May 10, 2015, Mother's Day, Bell's car was run off the road by a reckless driver. His sister, who was a passenger, suffered only minor injuries. Carlos was severely hurt. "I had the bone sticking out of my right leg," he said. Bell spent the next nine days in a medically induced coma. When he finally woke up, he learned doctors had been forced to amputate both of his legs. "I didn't know how to take it. I didn't want to cry. I didn't want to be mad. I just didn't want to do anything. I didn't see myself walking again," he said. The next year was a tough one as Bell learned how to walk all over again. When his high school graduation rolled around, almost everyone thought the Pleasant Grove senior would receive his diploma in his wheelchair. Everyone, except Bell. He admitted to even keeping his mom in the dark about his surprise. "My mama had asked me the day before, she was like, 'You going to walk?' 'No ma,'" Bell admitted. Except for a very small group of people, Bell had kept his plans secret. So you can imagine the shock Bell's friends and family felt when they saw him get up from his wheelchair, grab hold of his walker, and head towards center stage. "My therapist, she came real quick with the walker. Opened it. I stood up and then everybody stood up. They were just hollering and clapping," Bell said. Bell says the number of people in the Alabama Theatre, where the graduation ceremony was held, almost made him back out. "I told my therapist, 'I'm not going to walk. I'm just going to roll up and get my diploma and just be OK.' And she was like, 'No, you're going to walk. You're going to walk.' I was like, 'No, I'm not. I'm nervous, my stomach man.' I was ready to go home," Bell said. But Bell wouldn't hold back. "And then when they called my name, I was like, 'I've got to do it,'" he said. The Pleasant Grove teen made it across the stage without a hitch. It wasn't the first time he had walked since the accident but it was the first time everyone had seen him do it. It was in essence, a graduation within a graduation. "Don't ever let somebody tell you that you can't do something. Because I've heard, no one ever said it directly to me, but I've heard situations where people say, 'You know, he can't do this and he can't do that.' But I did," said Bell. This fall, Bell plans to enroll at Shelton State Community College. He wants to study computer and audio engineering, in hopes of one day becoming a music producer.