Heroic survivor ‘ doing much better’

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Anthony Borges, the student lauded as a hero of the Parkland school shooting, has been upgraded to fair condition after several surgeries for abdominal infections.

Shot five times as he blocked a classroom door against the killer, saving the lives of fellow students, the 15-year-old is the last victim of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to remain hospitalized. When his condition deteriorated last week, requiring him to be returned to the intensive-care unit, there was an outpouring of concern around the United States.

But the news this week is all good. His condition was upgraded from critical to fair, Jennifer Smith, spokeswoman for Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, said Tuesday. Under privacy rules, she could not comment on his condition by name but confirmed that the condition of the last victim at the hospital has been upgraded to fair.

He was removed from a ventilator Monday and is now breathing on his own and able to eat, said the family’s lawyer, Alex Arreaza. The abdominal surgeries appear to have been successful, he said.

“Everything went fine,” he said. “He’s doing much better.”

He cautioned that Anthony faces a long recuperation and that he is not out of the woods.

“He’s still recovering from a lot,” he said. “He took five bullets from an AR-15.”

The infection was caught relatively late because Anthony suffered in silence, his lawyer said.

“He’s got a superhigh threshold for pain,” he said. “His intestines were all twisted up. As tough as he was, he wasn’t complaining.”