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MIAMI (CBSMiami) — A South Florida quadriplegic who gained national fame in 2018 by using an exoskeleton to help walk across the stage at his college graduation at FIU, has done it again.
This time, Aldo Amenta walked across the stage to receive his master’s degree in biomedical engineering.
WATCH Aldo walk across the stage
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Amenta broke his neck and became paralyzed six years ago and didn’t know if he would graduate from college let alone walk at the ceremony.
But he did, with support from an exoskeleton, and he did again Sunday night as the graduation crowd cheered and chanted his name.
Amenta hopes to enter the biomedical industry to help others like him suffering from severe spinal injury.
Amenta became a quadraplegic when he broke his neck diving into the shallow end of a swimming pool in 2015, right in the middle of his college career. He spent two weeks in a coma, suffered collapsed lungs due to an infection and experienced his heart stopping twice.
He was hospitalized for two months.
Once he was healthy enough, FIU offered him a scholarship under its Ignite Campaign to help him get back to school and finish his degree in electrical engineering.