Hours after his Pinelands graduation, teen's lower leg was torn off. He needs your help.

LITTLE EGG HARBOR - At every high school commencement, there is some version of a speech about the twists and turns in the road ahead, facing life’s challenges, and the importance of being a good neighbor, a good citizen.

Sammy Magee has experienced a lifetime’s worth of all that since graduating Pinelands High School June 19. That evening, shortly after the ceremony, the 18-year-old was riding his all-terrain quad to a friend’s house when he collided with a truck.

“I made a left turn, I looked to my left and I just see the grille of a truck,” he said.

The collision severed his left leg below the knee.

“I got smacked, went flying, bounced off the concrete and I tried getting up and I’m like, ‘Damn, why can’t I get up?'” Sammy recalled. “I looked down and saw my leg completely in pieces.”

Suddenly, instantly, Sammy was an amputee.

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Two months later, as his classmates head into the next phase of life, whether that’s college or a job, Sammy is waiting for a prosthetic leg so he can turn the page, too.

“The trauma he’s sustained, the way he’s handling it, I’m amazed,” his mom, Rene Parker, said. “He maintains such a positive attitude.”

A prosthetic leg — the high-quality kind that an active 18-year-old who wants to become a contractor will need — costs upward of $20,000. Rene Parker is a single mother of three, including a son with autism, and is on leave from her job at Walmart so she can help Sammy recover.

They’re going to need the community’s help with this.

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'You are all awesome people'

Magee was driving his quad because most of the way to his friend’s house was a trail. But he did have to go through a tricky intersection in Tuckerton, and that’s where he got hit.

After the collision, the driver of the truck “saved my life,” Sammy said. “He was the one that kept me awake — he held my head up until the ambulance came.”

He was airlifted to Cooper University Hospital in Camden.

That’s when the community sprang into action.

Will Parker, Sammy’s brother, set up a GoFundMe campaign that so far has netted $10,000, all of which will go toward the prosthetic (many insurance companies don’t cover prosthetics or only cover a base amount). Former Walmart colleague Sheryl Olsen-Stryker set up a meal train to keep food coming to the home. The Walmart where Rene works in Little Egg Harbor threw a fundraiser.

Sammy’s best friends — Jacob Sanford, Joelle Briggi and Kylie Pharo — have been at his side since that first day in the hospital.

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Rene, who has endured the death of her father and her family dog within the past year, has leaned on support from Bobby and Sasha Parker — her brother and sister-in-law, as well as her boyfriend Drew Tomasuolo.

“We’ve gone through quite a bit,” Rene said. “We’re still processing everything.”

In the wake of the accident, so many text messages poured into Sammy’s phone wishing him well that he decided to respond to them all with a profound Facebook message.

“It wasn’t a plan for me to become an amputee in 2024 right after I graduated, but I’d like to say that I am okay and in stable condition,” he wrote in mid-July. “You are all awesome people for supporting me on this trip. I’d also like to say thank you to my family for helping me physically do everyday things. Thank you Mom and thank you to the community. And to be honest it could’ve been worse, I’m happy that my leg is all I’m missing.”

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One step at a time

Sammy is making progress. He’s getting around on crutches now and just got the prescription for a prosthesis. Measuring him for the new leg comes next, followed by physical therapy so he can get used to it.

Then there’s the pain.

“The phantom pains are slowly going away,” Sammy said, referencing the feeling — common among amputees — of discomfort as if the injured limb was still there.

“It feels like I still have my (lower) leg, but it’s slowly shortening. It feels like I have a foot attached to the end of this nub,” he explained.

Until he gets that prosthetic, everything is on hold. At Pinelands he was studying construction trades through Ocean County Vocational Technical Schools, and he’d been admitted to the vo-tech’s postgraduate continuing education program. He’s hoping for a deferred entry.

In the meantime, Sammy is trying to stay as upbeat as possible.

“It happened, so you can’t change it,” he said. “If you look at it sad, it’s going to be sad.”

There is wisdom there, a hard-earned lesson that can’t be taught in a classroom.

Here’s another: Every little gesture, every kindness shown toward Sammy and his family, makes a difference.

“It’s very heartwarming,” his mom said, fighting back tears. “The amount of outreach, it just reassures us that we’re not alone.”

To contribute to the GoFundMe campaign for Sam Magee, visit www.GoFundMe.com and search for “Sam’s Recovery.”

Jerry Carino is community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shore’s interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Pinelands HS graduate needs your help getting prosthetic leg