Chris Mason-Hale vividly remembers the football play that changed his life. The scene rolls through his mind with the same detail as the action movies he watches on his portable DVD player at Kernan Hospital.
A senior linebacker for Western Tech in Catonsville, Mason-Hale went for a routine tackle in the final scrimmage of the preseason, Aug. 29 at Northeast. "It was a dive," Mason-Hale said of the common short-yardage play. "They gave the running back the ball, and he came through the one hole. I'm always the go-to guy because I'll make the hit, and I went for the kill shot. That's when you go outside him, but when I tried to hit him, he popped up and my head flew back."
At that moment, the C-5 vertebra in his neck broke. The bone pushed into his spinal canal and bruised the spinal cord, a paralyzing injury. Two months after the injury occurred, Mason-Hale remains in a wheelchair, but he has some movement and feeling in all four limbs.
"I remember as soon as I hit him, I couldn't feel anything, so I fell straight to the ground," Mason-Hale said. "When I hit the ground, I could feel everything. All of a sudden, I could feel my arms and I could feel my legs. Nobody came over at first because everybody thought I was going to get up."
Mason-Hale can move his arms, fingers and toes, but he can't walk. His prognosis for getting back onto his feet remains uncertain, but his spirits seem to know no bounds.
"There's no point in being depressed because most of the time, it just hinders your ability," he said. "If you don't think you can, then usually you can't."
He acknowledges having a few "Why me?" thoughts and occasional down moments, but his parents say they never last long. Much of the time, he's cracking jokes, especially on Wednesday movie night, an event Mason-Hale initiated for patients and guests.
"His sense of humor is amazing," Wolverines teammate Bobby Watford said. "I couldn't see how I could be that upbeat. That's why I look up to Chris so much, him being so strong after the accident. It just amazes me because me, I start crying if I get a paper cut and he gets right back up after a major injury and he's all joking around."
Mason-Hale's is the first catastrophic injury in Baltimore County public schools football, which dates to 1967, said Ron Belinko, coordinator of athletics for the county. However, four years ago, Van Brooks Jr. also suffered a paralyzing spinal cord injury in a Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association football game.
