On April 5th, 2024, Mason and his friends were in a single car accident that resulted in a traumatic brain injury and severe burns for Mason.  He was life flighted to Vanderbilt where he spent the next 75 days in the trauma ICU.  During that time, Mason had a right and left side craniotomy and bilateral below the knee amputations from the burns.  When we left Vanderbilt for rehab at Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Mason had not emerged from his coma.  He spent the next 2.5 months at Shepherd Center in acute patient care receiving therapy and returned home still in a disorder of consciousness.  Mason improved upon coming home and by February of 2025, we were headed to Shirley Ryan Ability Lab in Chicago.  We were there for 5 months total doing inpatient and outpatient therapy.  While there, Mason emerged from his disorder of consciousness and received prosthetics.  The amazing team at SRAL helped him to take his first steps, his first bites of food and his first purposeful movement since the accident.  Mason has been home since July and still does therapy 3 days a week in Tennessee.  He’s making progress with his communication and is now saying a few words.  He’s working on standing and has made improvement in some activities of daily life like helping to feed himself.   He is doing his senior year through Home Hospital and will graduate with his class in the Spring.Mason’s resilience, strength, and work ethic have been an amazing thing to see.  While he still has a long way to go, him being with us is a miracle and he continues to do things daily that we were told he wouldn’t likely do.  We are very thankful for the support our community has given and continues to give as we navigate Mason’s recovery!