16-Year-Old Wrestler and Family Believe He Will Walk Again

Monday, January 31st 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Sal and Cindy Alberto are waiting for their son to take his first steps. His grandmother Dottie Stookie knows how hard it's going to be. â€œHe needs to really start working,â€ Stookie said. â€œAnd his mother can support him. She can give him that support that he needs." â€œKris was six months old when he took his first step,â€ said Mrs. Alberto. â€œHe's been determined since he was little."

Kris Cordero isn't little anymore. He's a 6-foot-two inch, 255-pound, 16-year-old, grappling with a neck injury he sustained during a wrestling tournament two weeks ago.
The initial prognosis was that the strapping heavyweight would never walk again. Cordero and his family didn't buy it. â€œIf anybody knows much about wrestling, you have to be very dedicated and disciplined to do that,â€ Mrs. Alberto said. â€œHe told me, 'I'll be able to do this, Mom.'"

â€œHe has feelings, in his legs,â€ explained Stookie. â€œHe has feelings clear down to his toes. He just can't move them. This is the next step that he has to take. This is a mountain that he's got to climb," she continued.

The mountain is in Colorado at a hospital that specializes in spinal cord injury rehabilitation. But the toughest part for this close-knit family isn't going to be the recovery. "Itâ€™s sad, leaving friends and family,â€ said Mrs. Albert. Weâ€™ll be gone for about four months.â€ She'll be by his side once again, protecting him, and encouraging him, just like when he learned to walk the first time at age six months. She'll be rewarded by the optimistic spirit of a boy she calls incredible. Cordero says his big accomplishment in the next four months will be that heâ€™s going to walk With all of their hearts, his family believes that he will walk again.

"I told him it's a battle,â€ said Mrs. Alberto. â€œWe're going to take one step at a time. We're not going to focus on the whole battle, just one step at a time. We'll make it through. The sky's the limit. How strong his faith is, will be how far he'll go." Cordero and his mother will be in Colorado for the next four months. Doctors say they'll have a better picture of the 16-year-oldâ€™s prognosis, once the swelling around his spinal cord subsides.