High School Wrestling Match Leads to Amputation

A high school Mexican student in Chicago is trying to turn a freak wrestling accident into a positive experience for other students.

Eddie Avila, a student at Belvidere North High School, was taken down during a wrestling match last month – and the resulting injury led to his leg being amputated.

But he’s kept a positive outlook on what happened.

“Being part of the wrestling team changed my life – for the better,” he told a group of high school students recently.

Avila was competing in a match Jan. 12 when he was taken down in a legal wrestling move and broke his femur and tibia and ruptured an artery that couldn’t be repaired.

Avila told My Fox Chicago he doesn’t feel any different now that he’s lost his leg.

“I’m still normal,” he told the station. “Everything is just going to be tweaked a little more.”

For more on Eddie Avila and related stories go to MyFoxChicago.