Omaha’s Blade 5K recipient gets his legs

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    Omaha, NE (WOWT) — We first introduced you to 9-year-old Nathan Leetsch in July.

He was running in the first-ever Virtual Blade 5k as the year’s lucky recipient.

Since then, he’s turned 10 and now has his legs.

”It was just, joy filled my body. I was like yes, finally,” Nathan said.

Finally – after months of waiting and countless appointments – this was the moment Nathan got his legs.

“Wow, they smell good,” he said.

“He said humbled. Dad said humbled and I think that’s a good word, too — but we’re kind of speechless,” said Melanie Leetsch, Nathan’s mom.

Speechless at how much has changed in her son since he recieved the prosthetics less than a week ago.

“He didn’t want to take them off. He’s been wanting to go on midnight walks. He’s yes, he’s over the moon,” she said.

Nathan’s work isn’t done yet – he’s still doing exercises to get used to his new legs.

But he’s excited to be able to start playing sports.

“I think I’m gonna do baseball first and then I’m going to work my way up to soccer,” he said.

From the looks of him playing kickball – he’ll be there in no time.

Nate and Julie Wigdahl started the Blade 5k organization – they’ve been working alongside Nathan and his family and are overjoyed to see Nathan so successful.

“To see it finally come to fruition was a pretty amazing thing. And to see Nathan finally be able to run and jump around and do things that he hadn’t been able to do before was pretty awesome really,” Nate Wigdahl said.

Welcomed good news during an overwhelmingly tough time.

“I was diagnosed with cancer, my dad was diagnosed with cancer. You know, Covid, we’ve had Covid. I’ve been out of work because of my medical issues. So it’s been… we needed it. We needed some good news and a good day and seeing Nathan puts a lot of life into perspective,” Melanie said.

Nathan says when the pandemic is over — he wants to go to space camp and become the first amputee astronaut.

Right now – the Blade 5k organization is looking for their next blade recipient.

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