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Teen Who Lost Leg in Central Park Blast Thanks Donors For Prosthetic Limb

By Kathleen Culliton | September 6, 2016 2:54pm
 Connor Golden lost his leg Fourth of July weekend when he jumped off a rock in Central Park and landed on a abandoned fireworks.
Connor Golden lost his leg Fourth of July weekend when he jumped off a rock in Central Park and landed on a abandoned fireworks.
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Courtesy of Connor Golden

MANHATTAN — The college student who leapt from a Central Park boulder and landed on a set of abandoned homemade explosives that blew off part of his leg is walking on a new prosthetic limb after his GoFundMe page earned more than $70,000 to help pay it, the teenager announced.

“This past week, I returned to school and took my first steps on a prosthetic leg, which all of you have helped me pay for,” Connor Golden wrote on his GoFundMe page Monday.

“I cannot find words that adequately express my gratitude for how much hope and support you all have given me.”  

Golden, a 19-year-old music engineering student at the University of Miami, lost part of his left leg during a visit to New York City on Fourth of July weekend. 

When Golden jumped down off the boulders near East 60th Street and Fifth Avenue, he triggered a set of fireworks that had been abandoned at the base of the rock.

Golden was immediately taken to Bellevue Hospital but his leg could not be saved.

Days after the accident, parents of the Oakton High School chorus in Virginia, where Golden comes from, started the GoFundMe page to help pay for his new prosthetic leg and other medical expenses.  

Roughly 1,000 people had donated almost $73,000 to the GoFundMe page as of Tuesday afternoon.

Golden posted his thanks to the friends, family and complete strangers who had funded his new prosthetic leg. 

“It is a beautiful thing to see how many people are by my side when a tragedy like this strikes,” wrote Golden. “You’ll see that I’m smiling in the photo. That’s not just because I’m happy to begin walking again.”