Enright’s parents rushed to the field, where an emergency
medical team strapped their son to a stretcher and lifted him into an ambulance bound for Palmetto Richland’s intensive care unit in
Columbia. The responders secured Enright’s chest and abdomen with orange and black buckles and used tape to stabilize his head. He still had his white lacrosse helmet on.
Enright underwent surgery and later found out his C6 vertebrae was crushed into his spinal cord. “It’s a sick feeling,” said Jack’s mother, Ann.
“It’s a horrible feeling. It’s not like any injury I’ve ever seen my kids go through. We’ve had lots of stitches and lots of broken bones, and this was just very different. It was a helpless feeling.” The next day, a hospital employee handed Ann Enright a book, “Yes, You Can! A Guide to Self-Care for Persons with Spinal Cord Injury.” The spiral-bound tome depicts a paralyzed father flanked by his family. “Your son is still going to have a good life and he can have kids, but you’re going to want to read this,” the employee told her. After a week in the ICU, doctors moved Enright to the Shepherd Center, where he received the bleak 10-percent prognosis. The probability was only that high, they said, because of his age and his physical health. “It was a hard pill to swallow at first,” he said. “We’ll take that,” Ann Enright said. “It’s not zero.” Enright’s first two months in the hospital included six-hour physical therapy sessions and time in the pool once or twice a week. He stood up out of his wheelchair for the first time June 25. “Knowing there was a chance for me to improve and to walk again kind of motivated me to not slack off and not sit in the corner,” he said. “Pray for Jack” appeared on everything from car decals and billboards to posters and hashtags. The Enright family started a GoFundMe campaign to assist with medical expenses, raising more than $35,000 as of mid-August.
While Jack was in the ICU, visitors became so common for Jack that hospital staff at Palmetto Richland moved him from Room 502, which he shared with another patient, to the more spacious and private Room 512. Perhaps most meaningful to Enright was the
Enright, a midfielder for Chapin (S.C.) High, was playing defense when a shooter landed awkwardly on top of him, crushing his spinal cord.
48 LACROSSE MAGAZINE » October 2015
support he received from the lacrosse community. Paul Rabil and Kyle Harrison sent well wishes across social media and Casey Powell visited him in Atlanta. The NCAA Division II champion Limestone men’s team wore helmet decals with the initials “JE.” Commissioner David Gross hosted Enright at the Major League Lacrosse championship game. So much merchandise from colleges around the country filled his room that Enright again had to move to a larger room. “It’s hard to have those sad days when you know you have so many people behind you,” he said. Enright spent five months at Shepherd. He arrived back in Chapin Aug. 1 and celebrated his 17th birthday two days later. Enright operates a hand-controlled car — he passed his test driving on busy Peachtree Road in Atlanta during his final week at Shepherd — and continues his rehabilitation twice weekly for an hour at Lexington Medical Center and in his family’s pool. Long gone are the thoughts of moving a single toe in a hospital. Instead, Enright moves both legs and thinks about college and beyond. He thinks about walking again.
A Publication of US Lacrosse
©JASON MICZEK (ALL)
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