Madison Schemitz walks after being paralyzed when her ex stabbed her

US News

By Émilie Grue

A Florida high school softball star left paralyzed from the chest down after her stalker ex-boyfriend allegedly stabbed her more than a dozen times has revealed she is miraculously walking again – a year after the heinous attack.

Madison Schemitz, 18, took to Instagram earlier this week to share heartbreaking footage of her grueling road to recovery after being seriously injured during a stabbing spree outside a Ponte Beach restaurant Vedra last June.

“A whole year!” I wish I had the right words to describe this last year,” the teen wrote alongside her post.

“Through all the sleepless nights, secret tears and endless struggle, the last year has been far from easy but my heart is so full.”

“If there is one thing I have learned, it is to live in the present, because tomorrow is not promised,” she added.

The clip included footage of Schemitz receiving a standing ovation and loud applause as she walked unassisted across the stage during her May 17 Ponte Verde High School graduation.

Schemitz's remarkable recovery comes after she and her mother were ambushed allegedly by the teen's jilted ex-boyfriend, Spencer Pearson, as they left a local restaurant on June 3, 2023.

Pearson is accused of maniacally plunging the knife into his ex 15 times before slitting his own throat in a botched suicide attempt. The teen's mother, Jacki Roge, and a good Samaritan, Kennedy Armstrong, were also hacked in broad daylight.

The attack happened just days after Schemitz's mother reported Pearson to cops, telling them he allegedly stalked her daughter in person and online.

Roge had claimed that her increasingly frightened daughter said Pearson was following her on the way to school, leaving notes on her car and harassing her on social media.

Pearson and Schemitz had already been separated for several months before the attack.

Afterwards, Pearson – a former high school football player – spent several weeks in the hospital before being booked into a St. John's County jail.

His photo showed him covered in bandages with a grisly gash sewn into his neck.

It later emerged that Pearson had also attempted suicide weeks earlier and that his parents had sought mental health help for him, according to court documents.

Pearson has pleaded not guilty to a series of charges related to the stabbing spree, including attempted murder and aggravated battery.

He is currently detained awaiting trial. The next court hearing in his case is scheduled for June 11.