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With every beat of his heart, 29-year-old Nicholas Peregrino felt he was dying from another pump.
The religion and Spanish teacher at Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco was located at Sandonato Milanese Station in Milan, Italy, where he was bleeding.
It was just before noon on July 15th, and Peregrino was supposed to be on a two-hour train heading to Florence, but instead knew in hopes that an ambulance would arrive in time to save him. Photos of him taken on the station floor showed his breasts and shorts being soaked in blood.
Fifteen minutes later, paramedics arrived and ran across Staten Island, New York.
Authorities say the attack was carried out by a group of North African immigrants. Now removed for more than a week from what he described as “ISIS level wild bar” Pellegrino has confirmed a time of sufficient recovery to return to New York on Thursday.
“The miracle is still happening,” Peregrino, a professed Catholic, said in a phone interview Wednesday evening. “I’m grateful to be alive.”
Nicholas Pellegrino, right, track athlete at Monsignor Farrell High School in New York. The former student led an effort to raise funds after Peregrino was attacked in Italy.
(Finn McCall)
On Pellegrino’s day, the train would have been a small blip. He left a set of friends in northern Italy and joined another Tuscan set about his Italian holiday before the start of the fall semester.
Within minutes of boarding the train, Peregrino said he was being monitored by four men, about 10 rows away from him.
According to Peregrino, when he lowered his head, one person shaved the jugular vein with a pocket knife.
He also violently toressed the golden cross hanging around Pellegrino’s neck.
“The thugs weren’t afraid of me,” Peregrino said. “They were armed with pocket knives and were planning to kill me.”
Peregrino thought he would die when he dragged him from the train to a nearby platform.
Authorities said the attack took place around 11:30am. Peregrino boarded the train at the previous station.
He said he thought of two things in the moment after the attack.
“A, I was looking around where the suspects were just to stop coming to finish me,” he said. “And b, I felt the blood coming out of me literally in beats and hoped the ambulance would arrive on time.”
According to Italian media, Peregrino was rushed to a nearby hospital and received emergency medical care to stabilize the wound. He was then transferred to intensive care unit, where he received nine stitches.
He was hospitalized there from July 15th until Sunday, but later stayed with a friend until he flew to the US.
The Italian newspaper Milan today reported that two 21-year-old men were taken into custody by police on suspicion of robbery.
Peregrino testified in court Wednesday, saying the two are currently facing more serious charges of planned attempted murder.
He said authorities found a gold cross and chain in one of the suspect’s intestinal tracts.
According to Milan today, the two are from Tunisia and are part of the gang.
“The police told me I was the seventh victim to attack in the 48-hour stretch,” Peregrino said. “It’s crazy. It’s from the movie.”
The suspect’s assailants fled the train platform, but according to Milan today, they were identified in CCTV footage.
The two men were arrested for trying to board a bus carrying a switchblade and a stolen pendant, the news outlet reported.
Peregrino said two other suspects standing on guard at the time of his attack were also arrested.
Italian authorities did not respond to a call from the Times, nor did they come from the US consulate in Milan.
As his passport has not yet been recovered, Peregrino confirms that he has been given a temporary passport to return home.
“It was said that these people previously served six months in various other small robbers,” Peregrino said. “These are evil people with bad intentions.”
Before working at San Francisco High School, Pellegrino was a teacher and track coach at Monsignor Farrell High School in Staten Island, New York, and one of his friend and former students, Finn McCall, set up the GoFundMe along with other former students in Pellegrino.
“We are setting up this GoFundMe to help Nick pay for medical expenses that he incurs while he was hospitalized and replaces lost valuables,” McCole wrote on the page.
“Finn is a great guy, my former student-athlete and we are still friends,” Peregrino said. “I am amazed at the amount. Despite teaching being an unappreciative job, students show that they are craving and grateful for role models.”
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