On Wednesday, October 9th, a local high school football player suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) just before the team started practice. Todd McNamee, a 16 year old student at Wharton High, played as a linebacker and defensive end for the varsity football team.
Sean was playing catch with his teammates before practice officially began that afternoon on the field behind the high school. McNamee, at 6-foot-2, jumped over another teammate and tumbled on the ground where he hit his bare head against a machine used for painting lines on the field. He had not yet put on his helmet, since he was practicing on his own and team drills/practice had not yet officially begun.
In the week that followed, Todd’s prognosis looked grim and his parents feared that he would never wake up. Wharton lay in a medically induced coma while friends, family, and a spiritual adviser took turns visiting his hospital room and consoling his parents. Doctors initially believed that it was unlikely Wharton would make any form of measurable recovery.
However, this past Friday, after a total nine days following the accident that fractured his skull and nearly killed him, Sean woke up. “Small steps on a long road but progress is what we want,” Sean’s father, Todd McNamee, posted on Facebook.
After Sean regained consciousness, his family and their attorney said, he was responsive enough to nod his head yes or no to simple questions. He could squeeze visitors’ hands and he recognized his parents. According to medical professionals, this scores Sean favorably on the Ranchos Los Amigos level of cognitive function (between a Level 3 and 4) and means that his odds of recovery have increased.
“The prayers of many have been heard,” Steve Yerrid, the McNamee family’s attorney, said in a statement.
The blow fractured McNamee’s skull and required an emergency craniotomy to remove bloody tissue and reduce the swelling in his brain. Doctors informed Sean’s parents that he may not survive, and if he did, potential long-term damage to the left side of his brain could result in considerable, permanent impairment. The injured part of Sean’s brain controls functions like speech and the use of the body’s right-side appendages.
Hillsborough County public schools and Yerrid have hired officials to investigate the accident. Yerrid said that the district has agreed to provide him with surveillance video of the accident and that his law firm has already interviewed some of Sean’s teammates and witnesses, but is asking for anyone else with information on the incident to come forward.
“I am certain the School Board and its attorneys will assist us in seeing to it that all the facts are made known regarding the events of that day,” Yerrid said. It is not known at this time whether the McNamee family will be pursuing a personal injury lawsuit, or who any named defendants might be.
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