TAMPA, Fla. — A family from Cuba had a dream come true on Monday in Tampa. Their 3-year-old daughter, Alexa Prieto, stood up for the first time using prosthetic legs.

  • Alexa had her legs amputated at 3 months old due to an infection
  • Shriners Hospital for Children in Tampa helped Alexa get prosthetic legs
  • See our health coverage here

"I'm very happy," her mother Jacqueline Vidal said.

"A wonderful moment that we've been waiting for, for a long, long time," Armando Quirantes, Alexa's sponsor and the president of No Boundaries Prosthetic Foundation, said.

When Alexa was 3 months old, she had both her legs amputated in Cuba following an infection. Quirantes heard about her story and brought her to Miami last year. That is when Shriners Hospitals for Children in Tampa stepped in to help Alexa get prosthetic legs.

On Monday, Alexa tried on temporary prosthetics for the first time. She practiced standing up and sitting down during a physical therapy session.

"Right now this is the most important part of it but because she's a child, she's going to learn very well, very fast and she looks like she can't wait until she can actually get out there and take off like a rocket," Brian Sinnott, the senior prosthetist at the hospital, explained.

"It;s been a very difficult three years. It;s been very challenging for her and the family," Vidal said.

Permanent prosthetic legs are being created for Alexa. In the meantime, she will continue therapy, eventually learning to walk with the temporary prosthetics. 

"Her dream is to be able to walk with her brother," she said.