“I’ve already been living 15 years in this pain. How do I want to live the rest of my life? If I was given a second chance 15 years ago, what else can I do now? I was willing to try anything, so I said, ‘I think I want the leg gone.’" - Aristotle Domingo
In 2001, Aristotle Domingo’s mom discovered him unconscious in the hallway in their home and he was rushed to the hospital where he lay in a coma, on life support, for the next three months due to sepsis. Aristotle would beat the odds and survive, but that was not the end of his fight. For the next 15 years, Aristotle endured physical, mental, and emotional pain from multiple surgeries to his feet; a result of complications from his bout with sepsis.
Aristotle desperately wanted his life to change from surviving to thriving and that’s when he decided to proceed with a below the knee amputation to his left leg. Aristotle immediately started to rediscover all the activities that brought him joy in his past which, for starters, meant simply standing or walking his dog without pain. Aristotle even registered for a 5K run while in the hospital, recovering from the surgery!
Two years later, Aristotle experienced issues with his right leg and discovered he had an infection in the bone due to an untreated fracture or break in the leg. Aristotle wasted no time electing to amputate his right leg as well.
Aristotle is now an advocate and ambassador for the limb loss community and shares his story, and the stories of other limb loss athletes on his podcast, The AmpuTO Show. In 2017, Aristotle founded the Amputee Coalition of Toronto, a peer support group for other amputees and, three years later, he won the ParaSport Ontario 2020 Ambassador of the Year Award.
Aristotle is proving losing his limbs hasn’t disabled him; instead, it enabled him to live his very best life!
To learn more about Aristotle Domingo, you can follow him on Instagram at: @amput_o
You can also connect with him through his website at: http://aristotledomingo.com/
