Farmingdale bus crash survivor reunites with medical team who saved her life
NEW YORK (WABC) -- There was an emotional reunion Wednesday for one of the Farmingdale High School students seriously injured in a deadly bus crash in Orange County.
Audrina Corcitto, 15, returned to Cohen Children's Medical Center where she met with the surgeon who saved her life and the flight crew who airlifted her to the hospital.
Corcitto, a junior firefighter, was seated in the middle of the bus and helped one of her classmates get their leg unstuck.
"I will always go out of my way to help someone, I put them before me, because it's my dream, I want to be a firefighter like my pop pop and my sister is an EMT, I always looked up to them when I was younger," Corcitto said.
She suffered a spine fracture and surgeons had to put in screws and rods to stabilize her, but her surgeon believes she will make a full recovery.
The teen was one of dozens of students hurt, including five who were critically injured.
Her mother was emotional as she recalled the day she almost lost her youngest daughter.
"I received a picture from someone on the bus in the ravine and when I saw that, I was completely devastated," Kristi Corcitto said.
The school's band director, Gina Pellettiere, and chaperone and retired teacher Beatrice Ferrari were killed in the crash last month.
Audrina said part of what is pushing her to heal has been Pellettiere.
"We gotta keep fighting for her because we know that she would want us to keep going," Audrina said.
Corcitto will take classes online until she is fully healed. She still has several months of recovery ahead of her.
Meanwhile nearly 100 pizzerias are teaming up for a fundraiser to benefit the families impacted by the crash.
Participating pizzerias in Nassau and Suffolk counties will donate $5 from every pie they sell. The funds will go to the families of the two school employees who died as well as the Farmingdale High School marching band.
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