{"id":134684,"date":"2026-03-10T18:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T18:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/134684\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T18:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T18:30:10","slug":"hopeful-update-on-ward-melville-grads-fight-to-save-leg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/134684\/","title":{"rendered":"hopeful update on Ward Melville grad’s fight to save leg"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n \"\" <\/a><\/p>\n

Melaina Gargano, 22, is recovering at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia after community donations helped make her transfer from Arizona possible<\/p>\n

Victoria Gargano took to Facebook this week with a smile-filled update on her daughter Melaina \u2014 the Ward Melville High School grad and Arizona State University senior recovering from catastrophic leg injuries she suffered in a Feb. 25 crash in Arizona involving a suspected drunk driver.<\/p>\n

The relieved mother from South Setauket posted a reel showing her 22-year-old daughter smiling and holding a thumps-up sign from a hospital bed at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. Victoria Gargano said her daughter had come through her fifth surgery and has settled into a larger room where family and friends can visit.<\/p>\n

Melaina Gargano was transferred to the Philadelphia hospital; her medical transport from Arizona was made possible, in part, by a community fundraising campaign that has raised more than $110,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer spirits are lifted, and she\u2019s incredibly grateful for all of your prayers and generous support,\u201d Victoria Gargano wrote. \u201cTruly, there are no words to express how thankful we are as a family. We see Melaina as a miracle, and we thank God every day for sparing her life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crash in Arizona left Melaina with devastating injuries to her right leg. The family reported last week that three inches of her tibia are missing, her fibula is fractured, and most of the skin and muscle on her lower leg and foot are severely damaged.<\/p>\n

She additionally was diagnosed with drop foot, and one of her three major leg veins stopped functioning.<\/p>\n

Arizona doctors had recommended amputation, family says<\/p>\n

\"MelainaMelaina Gargano, 22 (Facebook\/Melaina Gargano)<\/p>\n

Doctors at her original Arizona hospital had recommended amputation, citing the complexity of her trauma, Gargano\u2019s family said. But a specialized limb salvage center in Pennsylvania reviewed her case and believed her leg could be saved \u2014 if she could get there in time.<\/p>\n

The obstacle was money. The family\u2019s insurance company had initially declined to cover the cost of medical air transport and the specialized surgery, and projected medical costs over the next two years are expected to exceed $350,000.<\/p>\n

The community answered swiftly. A GoFundMe launched by Melaina Gargano\u2019s aunt, Kimberly Scarola of Stony Brook, raised $74,000 in a single day, helping make the transfer and surgery possible.<\/p>\n

The college student had already endured four surgeries before arriving in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

On the GoFundMe page she created, Scarola describes her niece as someone with \u201ca kind and loving soul, a playful spirit, and a joy for life that lights up every room she enters.\u201d It\u2019s a description that appeared very much alive in the reel Victoria Gargano shared.<\/p>\n

The road ahead remains long. The family expects more than a dozen additional surgeries.<\/p>\n

Support for Melaina continues<\/p>\n

Donations can be made to support Melaina Gargano\u2019s recovery by clicking below:<\/p>\n

\"Your
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Subscribe to the GLI Newsletter \u2014 its free<\/p>\n

Subscribe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melaina Gargano, 22, is recovering at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia after community donations helped make her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[44642,37825,10063,62183,44852,62184,15573,69,71,70,62185,62186,62187],"class_list":["post-134684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-arizona-state-university","tag-drunk-driving","tag-gofundme","tag-limb-salvage","tag-long-island","tag-melaina-gargano","tag-penn-presbyterian-medical-center","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-south-setauket","tag-three-village","tag-ward-melville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}