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Parkland hero who took 5 bullets for his friends is finally out of the hospital

Anthony Borges used his body to keep a classroom door closed and saved the lives of at least 20 others.

The most gravely injured Marjory Stoneman Douglas student, known as “the real Iron Man,” has finally returned home from the hospital for good.

Anthony Borges, 15, had barricaded himself and his classmates in a classroom during the mass shooting on Feb. 14 that claimed the lives of 17 students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. As Borges used his body to keep the door closed, he was shot five times but saved the lives of at least 20 others. Those actions earned him the name of “hero” and even “the real Iron Man.”

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"None of us knew what to do. So he took the initiative to just save his other classmates," Borges’ friend Carlos Rodriguez told ABC.

Since then, Borges has had nine surgeries and a third of a lung removed. “I think I was going to die,” he told NBC’s "Today" show Wednesday in his first first interview since the deadly shooting.

He’d been released from the hospital once already but had to go back after doctors spotted what they thought might be an infection in his abdomen from one of his bullet wounds.

Now, more than a month and a half after the shooting, Borges told "Today"“I feel good.” But still he struggles to speak as he continues to recover from the wounds he suffered. He loves soccer and hopes he can return to the field soon.

Borges immigrated to the U.S. three years ago, according to the Sun Sentinel. He’s received piles of mail from admirers, including letters from his native country of Venezuela. But he hasn’t had a chance to get through all of them, his mother said on "Today."

His family was the first to file suit against Broward County officials for their failure to heed the warning signs that the shooter had demonstrated in the years leading up to the massacre.

Cover image: This image made available by the Broward County Sheriff's Office on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, shows Sheriff Scott Israel, holding the hand of Anthony Borges, 15, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. (Broward County Sheriff's Office via AP)