Santa Barbara teen easing back into life after being critically injured in microburst

It was Labor Day weekend and Santa Barbara was in the grip of a heat wave with temperatures reaching 100 degrees.

“The last thing I remember is running and then black,” said 16-year-old Alyssa Nuno.

It was the perfect day for Nuno to cool off with her family at West Beach.

“The weather changed within minutes,” said Nuno’s mom, Sandra Alamillo. “We literally took a family picture about 20 seconds before it started hailing.”

A powerful thunderstorm, later determined to be a microburst, brought heavy 80 mph winds, hail and rain sending Nuno’s family scrambling. It was chaos at the beach, as other families tried to gather their belongings and run for cover.

The microburst lasted less than two minutes, but it would create lasting damaging for Nuno.

“I saw all of the umbrellas flying and everyone’s chairs,” Nuno said.

“I yelled at her and said, ‘Just run!'” said Alamillo.

Alyssa ran off with her boyfriend but was soon separated from him. For 15 minutes, no one could find her.

“Then, all I see is my husband. He picked up this big giant canoe and threw it off by himself,” Alamillo said.

Nuno was buried under that canoe, a pile of kayaks and debris.

“Once they took the last one off of her, that’s kind of when she rolled over,” said Alamillo, with tears in her eyes.

She was stunned at the site of her child, crumpled up and bleeding from a huge gash in her head.

“She was talking to me the whole time. She’s amazing,” Alamillo said. Alamillo repeatedly told her daughter to “just hold on, just hold on, we’re going to get you there.”

Nuno was rushed to Cottage Hospital, then airlifted to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where she would spend nearly two months.

“It was really hard to stay positive at first because I saw myself not like I was before,” Nuno said.

Nuno sustained multiple fractures and a brain injury. She had to undergo two major surgeries. She couldn’t move or open her eyes, but her family knew she was aware of what was happening and was fighting to stay alive.

“She would nod her head if you would ask her a question. If she was ok, she would give you thumbs up,” Alamillo said.

The determined teen healed quickly to the amazement of all of her health care providers, going from her hospital bed, to sitting in a chair, to walking again.

“I thank god every day. I went to church and that’s pretty much all I thanked him for,” Nuno said. “I thanked him for saving my life and having me heal so great.”

Nuno is also grateful to her mother, who never left her side.

“It’s really good because she has gone through this with me,” Nuno said. “Every time I was scared, she told me not to be.”

The moment Alamillo knew everything was going to be OK was when she heard her daughter singing in the hospital hallways.

“I said to myself, ‘This is going to be good now, my child is coming back,'” Alamillo said.

Nuno is slowly easing back into her old life. The Dos Pueblos High School junior was recently honored at the Homecoming football game.

She also paid a visit to campus to catch up with old friends, and made a trip back to the hospital to see her favorite nurses and doctors.

Nuno’s road to recovery is not over and won’t be easy.

She is blind in one eye and partially blind in the other. Nuno may also need another reconstructive surgery.

“I feel because I know my child she is going to miraculously surprise all of us,” Alamillo said. “She is going to wake up one day and say, ‘Mom, I’m ready’.”