After not taking physical therapy and learning to walk on his own, Robert Mercado made it through crutches after getting his prosthetic leg.

Learning to walk without crutches and walking with his prosthetic leg took him two to two-and-a-half weeks.

“I felt that therapy was going to be a waste of time for me and I felt I had a strong positive mind to go through with it on my own. I am the type of person that likes to achieve things on his own,” Mercado said.

Four years have passed since the accident that changed Mercado’s life.

It took place in Davis Middle School while Mercado was playing football and a lawn mower cut half his leg off. Mercado was just 14 years old when it occurred.

The life-changing moment

While Mercado was running, the lawn mower hit him and he fell, it went over his left foot, leaving him with broken bones in his leg, and a broken ankle.

He was later rushed to the hospital.

The blades were rusty and dirty, which caused him to develop an infection that arose when a considerable mass of body tissue died.

The doctors had to cut from 6 inches above his ankle.

“First, it was hard for me to adjust to it, but I got the hang of it. I got a prosthetic leg eight months after my accident and then I adjusted right away,” he said.

 “My orthopedist laughed at how I always broke them. What can I say, I was staying active.”

Relearning to walk

One of the challenges he went through was learning how to walk again with his prosthetic.

“I felt like a one-year-old baby learning to walk while waddling,” he said.

“I was young; I didn’t think much of it. I saw it as a normal thing, a new challenge I had to overcome.”

Mercado took a beginner’s swimming class  that was being taught by swimming head coach Joe Abing.

Already having some experience in swimming, he wanted to practice his techniques.

“Robert was always on time to my class, he was a hard worker, and had an incredible attitude. He didn’t seem to have any limitations and wouldn’t complain for anything,” Abing said.

Diving in the water

As the fall semester was coming to an end, Abing took his entire beginner’s swimming class and had them jump off the diving boards.

“I knew he had incredible latitude. I told him it might be a crazy thing, but asked if he wanted to learn how to get on the diving boards to learn how to dive,” Abing said.

Now with one year swimming for Cerritos and prior experience, Mercado was excited that Abing had offered him a chance to join the diving team after seeing him on the diving boards.

“If I tell him what to do, he goes for it. Sometimes he goes for things before I even tell him. He helps motivate his teammates if they see him diving. Seeing him  is a way of saying to themselves,  ‘If he can do it, how can I not?,'” diving coach Glen Myers said.

“Being on his first season on the diving team, I’m impressed and he has never said no to anything I tell him to try, since day one,” Myers said.

Along with being part of the diving team, Mercado also cycles, snowboards, paintballs and go-karts outside of school.

The persistent efforts

Diving is one of his top priorities, and he will keep doing it even though he is well aware he might get hurt.

 “I try everything everyone else does, but I have to work twice as hard as them,” Mercado said.

Despite his prosthetic leg being a hindrance throughout the first season, he has become an inspiration to his peers on the diving team, showing them to go beyond their boundaries.

“Some of the divers see that he can do a certain technique without mentally blocking out.  Others on the team get the mental blocks, but seeing Mercado up on the board doing it pushes his teammates to go up there and overcome the block,” Myers said.

He attends practice on time and always goes out to take a few breaks, but he puts more practice forth than others on the team.

“I want people to treat me the same as any other person with every piece of his body.

“This season on the team, my goal is not to be the last one  and improve my diving techniques,” Mercado said.

Mercado failed to place in his first tournament this season by performing the wrong technique, after he misunderstood the challenge that was given to the divers.