Health
Cancer nearly took his leg, but this father of 6 is walking again: ‘I shouldn’t be here’
For one New York father of six who overcame the odds, this Father’s Day will be sweeter than most.
Richard Monti, a real estate developer who lives on Long Island, recently faced certain amputation after a life-threatening infection — until a determined doctor saved his leg with a complex surgery.
When Monti was diagnosed with metastatic kidney cancer in 2018, he thought that would be his toughest battle.
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But after having surgery last year to repair his fractured upper shin bone — which had been damaged by years of cancer and radiation therapy — Monti developed sepsis, which threatened both life and limb.
Richard Monti, a real estate developer on Long Island, recently faced certain amputation after a life-threatening infection. A determined doctor was able to save his leg with a complex surgery. (Richard Monti)
It is relatively common for cancer patients to experience these types of fractures, according to Dr. Nicola Fabbri, chief of the Division of Orthopedic Oncology at NYU Langone Orthopedics, who treated Monti.
“When cancer is metastatic and goes to the bone, fractures do occur — it’s actually the main complication,” Fabbri told Fox News Digital in an interview.
“Probably 50% of people who develop bone metastases develop fractures.”
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While he was intubated and in a coma for several weeks, Monti underwent six surgeries to clean out the infection and try to restore his bones.
“They told my wife she should get prepared,” he told Fox News Digital in an interview. “They didn’t expect me to make it.”
Monti did pull through — but when he woke up, doctors delivered even more devastating news.
Richard Monti, center, is pictured with his family, who helped him get through his long ordeal. “I’m really living a normal life now,” he said. (Richard Monti)
“I was given basically one option, and that was amputation,” Monti, now 64, said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
The news sent Monti, who thrives on working on his feet, into a “very, very dark place.”
He said, “At that point, I was probably at my lowest. When my body moves, my mind moves. Losing that leg — I thought that was the way my story would end.”
“I was given basically one option, and that was amputation.”
Monti sought a second opinion from Dr. Fabbri of NYU Langone Orthopedics, who was highly recommended.
“When I met him, I loved what he said — ‘We don’t just cut legs off,’” Monti recalled.
After many tests and scans, the doctor told Monti he was “going back to the drawing board,” a nod to Monti’s building background.
“My wife and I started crying and smiling,” Monti recalled.
Dr. Nicola Fabbri, chief of the Division of Orthopedic Oncology at NYU Langone Orthopedics, was determined to save Monti’s leg. (Dr. Nicola Fabbri)
The doctor said he was hoping that given time, Monti’s sepsis would resolve, and his soft tissue would recover enough for a successful reconstruction surgery.
Monti’s case was complicated. He was dealing with an unhealed fracture of the upper part of his tibia, tissue damage from the sepsis infection, and significant bone loss and weakness from the radiation treatment for his cancer.
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“The sepsis was probably linked to being immunocompromised due to his cancer treatment,” Fabbri told Fox News Digital.
‘Performed miracles’
After Monti had some time to heal, he was deemed ready for surgery.
After 15 months of being in a brace and on crutches, Monti underwent a limb-preserving surgery consisting of a complex knee and tibia reconstruction.
While placing a new knee implant, Fabbri was able to correct the severe deformity caused by the fracture.
During the 11-hour surgery, which took place on Oct. 17 of 2023, the doctor also removed damaged parts of the tibia and replaced them with metal implants.
“That doctor and his team did perform miracles in my eyes,” Monti said of the surgery that saved his leg. (Richard Monti)
Now, Monti is pain-free, back to work — and able to walk without a cane or crutches.
“That doctor and his team did perform miracles in my eyes,” he said.
Monti still takes a chemotherapy pill once a day, and his tumors are now “very small, less than a centimeter.”
“For me to still be here — it means God’s got work for me to do.”
Although Fabbri has performed similar surgeries in the past, he noted that the circumstances of Monti’s challenges were “extremely rare.”
“This was a particularly challenging situation,” he said. “I never thought he could come back at this level. It’s really remarkable where he is today.”
Monti was able to walk on the beach just a couple of months after his surgery. “He can walk as tolerated with no support or limited support,” his doctor said. (Richard Monti)
Although Monti can’t run, he has “no substantial limitations” in his daily activities, his doctor told Fox News Digital.
“He can walk as tolerated with no support or limited support,” Fabbri said. “He sent me a video of him walking on the beach. It’s fantastic.”
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Throughout Monti’s darkest days, he said he drew strength from the love for his family — including his wife, five daughters and one son — and his faith.
“For me to still be here — it means God’s got work for me to do,” he said. “So I’m going to continue to do that work, because I honestly shouldn’t be here.”
Largely inspired by her father’s health journey, one of Monti’s daughters, pictured, has decided to pursue a career in nursing. “I’m so proud of her,” the dad said. (Richard Monti)
Recently, Monti was able to attend his daughter’s high school graduation, visit the college she will attend in the fall and enjoy a walk on the beach.
“It used to be that every step I took reminded me of cancer,” he said. “Every step was so painful. But now I really don’t think about it.”
“I’m living a normal life now.”
Largely inspired by her father’s health journey, one of Monti’s daughters has decided to pursue a career in nursing.
“Not everybody is so resilient.”
“I asked her why she was so determined to be a nurse,” Monti said. “She said, ‘Sitting there watching you all those months, I learned I had a lot to offer.’ I’m so proud of her.”
Fabbri credits Monti’s determination and positive outlook as being inextricably linked to his successful outcome.
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“Not becoming discouraged and still willing to go ahead — it takes a lot of guts and determination,” he said.
“It takes a lot of strength to believe in yourself and your physician. Not everybody is so resilient.”
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Colorectal cancer, once considered a disease of older age, is becoming a crisis for younger adults. New research shows one group getting hit the hardest – those without a college degree.
A recent study from the American Cancer Society analyzed data from over 101,000 adults aged 25 to 49 who died from colorectal cancer between 1994 and 2023.
While death rates remained stable for college graduates, they climbed significantly for those without a bachelor’s degree, the findings showed.
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For young adults with a high school education or less, the mortality rate rose from 4.0 to 5.2 per 100,000 people, while the rate for those with at least a bachelor’s degree stayed flat, at approximately 2.7 per 100,000.
This does not mean that a degree offers some kind of biological protection, researchers cautioned.
Colorectal cancer, once considered a disease of older age, is becoming a crisis for younger adults. (iStock)
The difference is likely driven by the conditions in which people live and work, which often correlate with education levels, the researchers noted.
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The study suggests that the higher death rates are likely driven by differences in the prevalence of risk factors, including obesity, physical inactivity, smoking and diet, which are “known to be elevated among children and young adults with lower [socioeconomic status].”
Because the study relied on death certificates, researchers couldn’t say exactly why college graduates had better outcomes.
Because the researchers didn’t have the patients’ actual medical records, they couldn’t see things like frequency of screenings or treatment options, which would impact survival outcomes. (iStock)
Certificates typically list the cause of death, age, race and education level, but they do not include a person’s full medical history.
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Because the researchers didn’t have the patients’ actual medical records, they couldn’t see things like frequency of screenings or treatment options, which would impact survival outcomes.
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Colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death for men under 50 and the second leading cause for women in the same age group, according to recent statistics.
While colorectal cancer death rates remained stable for college graduates, they climbed significantly for those without a bachelor’s degree, the findings showed. (iStock)
Because the disease is highly treatable when caught early, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) lowered the recommended screening age from 50 to 45 in 2021.
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Common signs and symptoms of colorectal cancer can include a change in bowel habits, such as diarrhea, constipation or narrowing of the stool, that lasts for more than a few days, according to the American Cancer Society.
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Other signs that warrant seeing a doctor include blood in the stool or a persistent feeling of needing to go to the bathroom but being unable to go.
The research was published in JAMA Oncology.
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A young woman who started vaping at the age of 15 has been given just 18 months to live — after being diagnosed with lung cancer in her early 20s.
Kayley Boda, 22, of Manchester, in the United Kingdom, was engaging in heavy vaping on a regular basis when she started coughing up a brown substance with “grainy bits” in it in January 2025, news agency SWNS reported.
The retail assistant said doctors turned her away eight times, telling her she had a chest infection — until she began coughing up blood.
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After seven biopsies, Boda was diagnosed with lung cancer. She underwent surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy — and in February 2026, got the all-clear, the same source reported.
Two months later, though, doctors said the cancer had come back in the pleural lining. Now she’s been given 18 months to live.
Kayley Boda, 22, is shown in the hospital. She started coughing up a brown substance with “grainy bits” in January 2025, she said. She had been vaping since the age of 15. (SWNS)
The young woman has now issued a warning to others to be aware of the dangers of vaping.
Boda said she smoked a bit as a young teenager. She took up vaping after that.
Then, “a few months after I switched from reusable vapes to disposable ones, I started coughing up brown, grainy mucus,” as SWNS reported.
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“Doctors turned me away eight times with a chest infection. … Then I started coughing up blood, so they did an X-ray and found a shadow on my lung,” she added.
“They told me they were 99% sure, [since I was] so young, that it wasn’t cancer, so not to worry about it. When I got the results back, and they told me it was lung cancer, it felt so surreal.”
Boda said she was “very naive” before her diagnosis and thought that “something like this would never happen to me.”
She said that she had surgery to remove half of her right lung.
“After the surgery, I started chemo and I had a terrible reaction to it. I couldn’t lift my head up. I was throwing up blood. I was urinating blood. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep.”
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She said that when she got the “all clear [in Feb. 2026], it felt amazing, but just two months later I was told the cancer had come back, and I have 18 months to live.”
She added, “I’m 22. This isn’t meant to happen to somebody my age.”
“Stay off the vapes because they will catch up with you.”
She blames her cancer on vaping, she said.
“My symptoms started a few months after I started disposable vapes, and there’s no lung cancer in my family,” she said. “I haven’t vaped for three months, I’ve made my partner stop, I’ve made my mom stop, I’m urging all my friends to stop. Stay off the vapes,” she continued, “because they will catch up with you.”
When doctors did an X-ray, they found a shadow on Boda’s right lung. She was later diagnosed with lung cancer and has undergone surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy. (SWNS)
She said she’d been using reusable vapes since the age of 15 and began using disposable vapes a few months before her cancer symptoms started.
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In November 2024, when she developed a rash all over her body, doctors said it could have been due to shingles, chicken pox or scabies, she told SWNS.
‘Nothing worked’
“I got treated for all three, and nothing worked,” Boda said. “It got to the point where I was cutting myself from scratching so hard.”
A few months after that, she began coughing up a dark brown mucus, with “grainy bits, the consistency of sugar, in it,” she said. When the coughing continued, she visited the doctor’s office, but was told it could be scarring from pneumonia or a chest infection, she also said.
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It wasn’t until March 2025 that she began coughing up bright red blood. At that point, doctors gave her a chest X-ray and told her they’d found a shadow on her lower right lung.
Over the next four months, she had seven biopsies as doctors took samples from the “shadow.” In August, when she went to get the results, she was told she had stage one lung cancer.
Boda is shown in the hospital. She was diagnosed with lung cancer and had surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy. (SWNS)
In September 2025, she had surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, and the surrounding lymph nodes. During the surgery, doctors upstaged her cancer from stage one to stage three after finding cancer in six surrounding lymph nodes, she said.
Following the surgery, Boda was unable to breathe properly and had to learn to walk all over again.
“The oncologist said this is so rare.”
After finishing chemotherapy in February 2026, Kayley was given the all clear, leaving her feeling elated.
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However, just a month after that, she began experiencing extreme chest pains and was told by doctors she had a pleural effusion — a build-up of fluid in the lungs. She had the fluid removed, but when doctors tested it, they discovered her cancer had returned to the pleural lining of her lungs, giving her 18 months to live.
“The oncologist said this is so rare, and usually something they see in patients that are 80 years old,” she said, as SWNS reported.
Increasingly, vacation hot spots are enforcing strict bans on the use of e-cigarettes in public venues. (iStock)
Boda claimed that doctors were unable to pin her cancer to a specific cause — but told her that smoking and vaping definitely didn’t help.
Since her diagnosis, she has stopped and is urging others to stop, too.
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She’s hoping to raise the thousands of dollars needed for treatment to try to prolong her life, she said.
Last year, Fox News Digital reported on the case of a Pennsylvania woman, 26, who said she vaped for just one year before her lungs collapsed. She was 22 when she took up the habit, she said in an interview.
“Everybody warned me about it, but I didn’t listen — I wish that I did,” she said.
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Dr. David Campbell, clinical director and program director at Recover Together Bend in Oregon, told Fox News Digital at that time that signs of collapsed lungs include sharp chest or shoulder pain, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing.
Lung issues are just one of the many health issues linked to vaping, he warned. The habit can also increase the risk of heart disease and stroke, as well as exposure to harmful heavy metals.
Melissa Rudy of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.
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The key to feeling better in a fast, overstimulated world might be surprisingly simple: Live a little more like your grandparents.
A growing social media trend, dubbed “nonnamaxxing,” draws inspiration from the slower, more intentional rhythms associated with an Italian grandmother.
The lifestyle is often linked to activities like preparing home-cooked meals, spending time outdoors and making meaningful connections.
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“Nonnamaxxing is a 2026 trend that embraces the slower, more intentional lifestyle of an Italian grandmother (a Nonna). Think cooking from scratch, long family meals, daily walks, gardening and less screen time,” Erin Palinski-Wade, a New Jersey-based registered dietitian, told Fox News Digital.
Nonnamaxxing, derived from the name for an Italian grandmother, is a trend that incorporates lifestyle habits hundreds of years in the making. (iStock)
Stepping away from screens and toward real-world interaction can have measurable benefits, according to California-based psychotherapist Laurie Singer.
“We know that interacting with others in person, rather than spending time on screens, significantly improves mental health,” she told Fox News Digital, adding that social media often fuels comparison and lowers self-esteem.
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Living more like previous generations isn’t purely driven by nostalgia. Cooking meals from scratch, for example, has been linked to better nutrition and more mindful eating patterns.
Adopting traditional mealtime habits can improve diet quality and support both physical and mental health, especially when meals are shared regularly with others, Palinski-Wade noted.
One longevity expert stresses that staying healthy isn’t just about food — it’s also about joy and community. (iStock)
There’s also a psychological benefit to slowing down and focusing on one task at a time. Anxiety often stems from unfinished or avoided tasks, Singer noted, and engaging in hands-on activities can counteract that.
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“Nonnamaxxing encourages us to be present around a task, like gardening, baking or knitting, or just taking a mindful walk, that delivers something ‘real,’” she said.
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Palinski-Wade cautions against turning the trend into another source of pressure, noting that a traditional “nonna” lifestyle often assumes a different pace of life.
The key, she said, is adapting the mindset, not replicating it perfectly.
Nonnamaxxing, derived from the name for an Italian grandmother, is a trend that incorporates lifestyle habits hundreds of years in the making. (iStock)
The goal is to reintroduce small, intentional moments that make you feel better.
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That might mean prioritizing a few shared meals each week, taking a walk without your phone or setting aside time for a simple hobby, the expert recommended.
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Singer added, “Having a positive place to escape to, through whatever activities speak to us and make us happy, isn’t generational – it’s human.”
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