How this Merced student paid back the doctors who saved his life.

For Lucca Lorenzi, just saying 'thank you' wasn't enough.

The soon-to-be Golden Valley High senior wanted to do more for the hospital, doctors, surgeons and nurses that helped save his life last year.

Lorenzi was a patient last summer at Lucile Packard Stanford Children's Hospital.

Lorenzi hadn't been feeling well. At first thought he had a sinus infection or allergies, but when the symptoms got worse, his doctor advised the family to get him to Valley's Children's Hospital in Madera. So that's how he spent his Fourth of July in 2017, at the hospital.

Tests eventually revealed Lorenzi had Juvenvile Nasopharyngeal Angiofibroma. He had a benign invasive tumor growing in the back of his nasal cavity. Although JNA is non-cancerous, the tumor can spread quickly to a variety of compartments in the head, including the brain, according to the Boston Children's Hospital website.

"It was scary," said Lorenzi's mother Suzie. "It went from us thinking it was a sinus infection to finding out he had a tumor. We were driving from Valley Childrens Hospital to Stanford in an ambulance. Soon he was having two surgeries. It was overwhelming."

Lucca underwent two surgeries to have the tumor removed at the Packard's Center Bass Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases. He spent close to a week in the hospital.

Lucca and his family were so grateful for the care and attention they received during his stay at the hospital, Lucca immediately wanted to figure out a way to give back.

So Lorenzi, 16, turned to one of his passions - art.

Lorenzi began a service project he named "Pack it up for Packard." Last fall he donated over 800 art supply items, including new packs of crayons, markers, paper and canvases to the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford in Palo Alto.

Lorenzi plans to donate even more art supplies this year with a goal of over 1,000 items.

"I love art. I take an (advanced placement) art class at school," Lorenzi said. "I felt this was the perfect way to give back, to help restock their art supply. Kids can confide in art while recovering."

During his hospital stay, the nurses offered Lucca a chance to draw or color. He was too weak at the time, but the moment stuck with him. That's how he came up with the idea to donate art supplies for the patients. He was surprised at the generosity of his friends and family who helped him put together his art supply donation.

"His donation came at an amazing time because the hospital had just expanded in September," said Caitlin Burns, who is community relations assistant at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford . "We were able to fill the new playroom with his supplies. Art is a really good tool to help the patients. It's a distraction. Lucca understood the great importance art can have with patients."

"It's inspiring," said his father Joe. "He's paying it forward. We were so fortunate to have such good care at Valley's Children Hospital and Packard. We're blessed to live in a great community like Merced that helps us do something like this."

Lucca has always been interested in art. He takes art classes at school and he's also involved with Playhouse Merced.

The surgery prevented Lucca from playing water polo last fall, but he's bounced back. He was a member of the Golden Valley swim team this spring. He's also the president of the speech and debate club at Golden Valley, which he started when he was a freshman.

Lucca is still giving back.

The Lorenzi family helped raise more than $5,000 through donations for the Summer Scamper fund-raising event for Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford this past Sunday. He used his art skills to create some coloring pages for some of the patients to color at the Summer Scamper event.

Lucca was honored as a patient hero and delivered a speech to the crowd at the event. His message was the kids are the heroes.

"These kids are heroes for what they go through," Lucca said. "Heroes go beyond the fictionalized movie and comic book heroes. I grew up loving superheroes. I love comic books. Heroes are real. The doctors, surgeons and nurses who saved my life are heroes."

Lucca was the oldest of the patient heroes chosen for the Summer Scamper. He became a role model for the other kids, according to Megan Alpers-Raschefsky, who is the associate director of development communications at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford.

"We had over a thousand people rallied together, there was this wonderful energy there and Lucca spoke so passionately about his experience," Alpers-Raschefsky said.. "He also recognized each of our patient heroes and highlighted their story in his speech. He made goody bags for the other kids.

"Working with him and his family was truly extraordinary. He's really a special kid."

Lucca is already working on gathering up more art supplies to donate to the hospital again. The feeling he got handing over the donation last year was something special.

"It's such an amazing feeling," Lucca said. "It's the best possible way for me to say thank you to all the people who helped me from the surgeons to the doctors to the nurses. It also gives me a chance to visit them again. It allows me to tell them they've inspired me to give back to the kids."

Note: If you're interested in helping Lucca donate the art supplies to Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford you can e-mail Suzie Lorenzi at Suzanne.lorenzi@olmlancers.com.

This story was originally published June 28, 2018 at 2:56 PM.