Sal Banuelos

How it happened: 

Back in 2015, when I was competing with my Megacrew Elektrolytes, I broke my foot on stage. I was playing the part of Spider-Man and went to do a trick and landed horribly on my foot. I immediately knew something was wrong. Once I was able to get off stage it was very clear I had broken something

What happened next. 

I was taken to the ER and was told I had torn every ligament in my ankle, fractured my heal, and fractured the bones on the top of my foot. They were telling me I wouldn’t be able to dance or teach for over 3 months. Not to mention, we were going to film America’s Best Dance Crew Season 8 in about a month. All I could think about is how am I going to pay my bills and how am I supposed to be on this show? So, I did what was probably one of my biggest mistakes, I started dancing on my foot just 5 weeks after I injured it. Honestly, it was a hard time for me because I couldn’t even put my health first. I had to put money first so I could survive. Ever since this injury, I’ve had to miss several days of teaching. Those were several days I was missing out on money. It’s been almost 3 years since I got injured and it’s still affecting me to this day. I still have medical bills I’m trying to pay off and I am still in pain nearly every day.  I definitely wish I had the chance to take better care of my ankle back when it first happened, but I had to do what I had to do at the time so I could pay rent and put food in my stomach. At some point, I know I’m going to need surgery, but I keep putting it off because I don’t know how I’ll be able to afford taking that much time off of work. Now, every single time I get on stage all I can think about is what if I get injured again. I just can’t go through all of this again.