Fifteen-year-old Alex Hecht, who was diagnosed with a a flesh eating bacteria, was discharged from the hospital Friday, happy to be alive and remembering little of his brush with death.
For weeks Alex was on life support, covered in tubes at NYU Langone Medical Center. The flesh-eating bacteria had attacked his left leg and was rapidly draining away his life.
Alex's father, Mendel Hecht, said that Alex went into septic shock, causing his lungs, liver and kidneys to collapse.
"The doctors were saying 'we don't know if he's going to make this and you've got to mobilize for the worst,'" Hecht said.
While Alex was in the hospital, Hecht said prayers and support poured in from all over the world, and good deeds were done in Alex's name. Hecht said he was also in contact with the father of another man suffering from the same affliction.
Volunteer firefighter Ralph Lettieri, 26, was also diagnosed with the flesh eating bacteria. He is still fighting for his life at Nassau University Medical Center.
Both patients have endured multiple surgeries.
Hecht, an ordained rabbi, thanks the doctors and God that he is taking his son home and prays Lettieri will soon be well enough to do the same.
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