'This is a blessing:' Teen shooting victim thanks medical team that saved his life

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- It was an emotional afternoon in Philadelphia's Hunting Park section as a high school student thanked the nurses and doctors who saved his life.

Ivan Cuevas, 17, was shot in the head last year and credits the medical team for making it out alive.

On the first anniversary of his shooting, Ivan returned to St. Christopher's Hospital and the ICU to say "thank you."

"I could have been paralyzed from the neck down, that didn't happen," Ivan said. "To be talking to you right now, this is a blessing."

Ivan said he was standing in front of Lincoln High School in Mayfair last year when a gunman opened fire. He was not the intended target, but he was shot in the back of the head as he ran away.

Neurosurgeons managed to remove the bullet lodged in his brain.

Doctors say he's a true St. Christopher's miracle. When he first came in one year ago, he was not expected to survive.

His mother, Natali Rosario, said she is using this moment to speak out against the city's gun violence epidemic because not everyone is this lucky.

"Most mothers don't get this privilege like I do," Rosario said. "We don't get this opportunity to show something good."

Ivan spent 36 days in the hospital and is now walking, running, and even works at McDonald's after school.

He's taking his senior photos Wednesday and all of the doctors and nurses want a copy to hang up. He's proof, they say, of living miracles.