A radiant Lucila Munaretto can’t stop smiling.
“I’m feeling good. To be able to be alive, it’s something out of everyone’s mind,” she said, during an interview at the North Shore News Thursday.
Seven weeks ago Munaretto was rushed to Lions Gate Hospital in critical condition after colliding with a van on a busy roadway in Upper Lonsdale while on roller skates.
The 21-year-old promising ballerina originally from Argentina spent two weeks in a medically induced coma to ease the swelling on her brain. She said the first 10 days after the accident are a blur.
“They told me that I woke up and I tried to take the tubes out of me,” revealed Munaretto with a laugh. “Three times I did that, take all the stuff out.”
Eventually the nurses used wrist restraints to prevent Munaretto from pulling out her breathing tube and IV again. But they couldn’t stop her legs from practising ballet moves.
Ballet has been Munaretto’s saving grace through her ordeal. Before the Aug. 13 accident, Munaretto was performing with Coastal City Ballet after being recruited by the Vancouver-based dance school three years ago.
On Sept. 26, one day after Munaretto was released from Lions Gate, she returned to the dance studio to visit her friends and watch them put on a special show.
From the sidelines, Munaretto, her broken pelvis still healing, slowly moved her arms and legs in sync with the familiar choreography to music from The Nutcracker.
Being in that environment again invigorated Munaretto, who remains positive and focused on her end goal.
“It just gave more energy to go forward with what I am going to do when I’m strong enough to dance again,” said Munaretto, who is confined to crutches until she gets the green light from her doctors.
In the meantime Munaretto is adjusting to a different routine: physiotherapy four mornings a week at Lions Gate, followed by an afternoon walk around her Edgemont Village neighbourhood.
She has also found drawing and painting to be therapeutic in more ways than one; Munaretto has to build up strength in her right wrist, which was broken in the accident.
Asked what lessons the accident has taught her, Munaretto said she has learned to celebrate the small things in life and not to complain about her situation because there are people that are worse off than her.
“I’ll be more positive about everything, and not take things for granted,” she said.
Munaretto also considers herself lucky that she doesn’t remember anything from that fateful August day in Upper Lonsdale.
“Because I don’t need to know the bad part of the story,” said Munaretto, adding, she’s worried she might have flashbacks down the road.
As for being in the spotlight and the subject of national media coverage, Munaretto admited it’s a little strange.
“It’s something different,” she said. “Unfortunately it’s because of the accident. It could be like, you got a job at some ballet company, but it’s not. But it’s OK.”
Munaretto, who is in Canada on a student visa, was planning to visit her family in Brazil shortly before the accident. Instead, Munaretto’s mother, Alicia Pekala, who has never travelled outside of South America, scrambled to get a passport to be by her daughter’s bedside in North Vancouver in a matter of days.
Munaretto has one sister, Florencia, who lives here with her, and another sister back in Brazil, along with a brother. She says she hopes to be reunited with the rest of her family next year.
An online fundraising campaign, set up by Coastal City Ballet, so far has raised $41,780 to help cover the costs of Munaretto’s long-term treatment.
Munaretto said she is grateful for all the people — from the first responders to hospital staff to family members to complete strangers — that got her to this place where she can start to heal.
“Everyone that tried to do something to bring me again to the world,” she said.
Her mom is equally overwhelmed and thankful for all the people that helped her daughter pull through during a critical time.
“It’s like a blessing from God and a miracle,” said Munaretto, translating for her mother. “I won’t have enough days in my life to thank everyone that helped her (Lucila).”
Munaretto had a chance reunion, in an Edgemont Village park last week, with one of the first witnesses to the accident who called 9-1-1.
“I met this woman accidentally at the park and she was like, ‘Are you the ballerina?’” explained Munaretto.
The last image that woman had of Munaretto was seeing her lying on the roadway unconscious and in pretty bad shape.
Munaretto thanked the Good Samaritan and apologized for having her see her in that condition at the accident scene.
At the same time Munaretto got to hear about two other women who stayed by her side and comforted her by saying things like “Be strong. Help is coming, sweetheart.”
A special dinner is being planned for November by Munaretto’s family to recognize all the people involved in her recovery.
