The Connecticut teen loved sports. He was a star on his traveling basketball team and loved nothing more than shooting hoops in his backyard. Now, the teen will never shoot another hoop because of a spinal cord injury he suffered when a car hit him in Aug. Doctors report the 17-year-old will be confined to a wheelchair for the entirety of his life as he will never be able to walk or use his hands ever again.
The 17-year-old was riding his dirt bike on a road, something that is illegal in Connecticut, when a black Toyota Solara failed to stop for him. Consequently, the impact threw the teen from his dirt bike and severely injured his spinal cord.
On his path to recovery, the teen was fed through feeding tubes and needed the aid of a ventilator. He can no longer dress or feed himself and his mom must rotate him every 2 hours so that he does not get bed sores. He misses basketball so much that he cannot bear to watch it on television.
The female driver of the vehicle that struck the teen received charges of failure to grant the right of way at an intersection, evading responsibility in property damage and injury, operating a motor vehicle without a license and making a false statement in the second degree.
While these charges may grant the teen some small sense of justice, they will never work toward helping him play basketball ever again. Furthermore, the teen will now likely face costly medical expenses due to his condition. Reportedly, the case is still under investigation and the mother of the teen would like the defendant to see her son in court so the defendant can see the damage she caused.
His mother is quoted regarding her child’s injuries in the following words, “I would never wish this on any mom no matter what, because it’s the worst for a mom to go through to see her child in that kind of state.”
Source: The Courant, “Hartford Teen’s Active Life Shattered,” Monica Szakacs, Feb. 23, 2012
