YES HE CAN
Given a 10-percent chance to walk again after being paralyzed in a game last spring, 17-year-old Jack Enright has made major strides toward recovery.
BY MATTHEW DEFRANKS
ach morning in his fourth-floor room at Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Jack Enright would think. He would spend hours fixated on the sight of his feet resting motionless at the end of his bed and just think about wiggling his toes. The posters and jerseys, t-shirts and letters adorning the walls fueled Enright’s hope for a twitch,
tremble or shiver. He did this every day for seven weeks. And then his thoughts delivered. Enright, who suffered a spinal cord injury playing lacrosse March 4, moved his left middle toe. It was a victory for the Chapin (S.C.) High midfielder, who after the injury was paralyzed from the waist down and told he had just a 10-percent chance of walking again. “When I was in bed, I would think about moving my toes even though I couldn’t move them,” Enright said. “I always pictured in my head me moving them.”
CASEY’S TAKE
The first obstacle had been cleared. Enright hurdled them week after week, month after month at Shepherd Center, a spinal cord and brain injury rehabilitation hospital. First came the toes, then the feet, then the lower legs and, finally, movement returned to the entire extremity.
Enright returned home to Chapin, about 30 minutes outside Columbia, at the beginning of August and now can stand easily and use a walker to go 50 to 100 yards at a time. The 17-year-old started his senior year in mid- August.
“At first, if I took two steps, I was super thrilled,” Enright said. “Now, building my endurance is pretty key.”
The Enright family hardly had such optimism six months ago. Chapin High hosted Lexington on a Wednesday night in South Carolina. Enright took faceoffs and joined his brother, Connor, as a team captain. Playing defense, Enright defended a shot from a Lexington player. His opponent jumped to release the shot and Enright lunged to hit him. The shooter came down on Enright’s head. Enright’s legs collapsed underneath him. “My feeling was very, very hazy,” Enright said. “I could kind of feel my toes and I could move my arms a little bit, but no movement in my legs. It was just really, really an odd feeling.” Enright’s parents sat in the stands that night. They couldn’t identify the injured player initially, but then the surrounding parents looked up to find them. The trainer on the field searched for them in the crowd.
I’m very happy and extremely proud of this young man. When I visited him at Shepherd earlier this year he was making great progress. What a great kid.
laxmagazine.com October 2015 » LACROSSE MAGAZINE 47
©JASON MICZEK
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