Football Youth Keeps Fighting Spirit in Battle Over Paralysis

When 15-year-old Jason Knight took a hit during a football game, his family enjoyed watching how quickly he bounced back to his feet, ready for more.

But nearly four months ago, Jason did not get up after making a tackle for his Torrance High School sophomore team. Now, as he faces the toughest battle of his life, his family has become Jason’s personal cheering section, encouraging him to fight on.

Paralyzed from the neck down by a crushing blow to his spine, Jason spends his days visiting with friends, watching television and gazing at photographs taped above his bed at Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center in Downey.

He knows it may be months before he can leave the hospital. But he believes he will come out a winner.

Jason, who is shy around strangers, says he remembers most of what happened during the Sept. 7 football game that changed his life.

Six minutes into the game, the first of the new season, Jason was playing an outside position as his team was kicking off. Jason ran to tackle a South High School player returning the kickoff and did what coaches had told him not to do--he lowered his head.

Doctors say the impact crushed his fifth vertebra, compressing and swelling his spine. Jason said he remembers the tackle and then remembers lying on the ground, unable to stand.

“It was a one-in-a-million deal,” Coach Bill Bynum said. “It was just an awkward, freaky, freaky thing.”

According to his mother, Carole Smith, Jason could still move his arms for a few days after the accident. As his spine began to swell, however, he lost that ability, and now has only minimal movement in his right arm. Doctors say it could be up to a year before they know the extent of damage to his spine.

Smith hopes that time and extensive physical therapy will help restore Jason’s ability to move.

“His father and I both believe that with a strong mind he’ll be able to turn things around,” she said.

“We try to keep him out there beyond ordinary thought,” said Jimmie Knight, Jason’s father. “He knows his neck is broken and he knows that’s a serious injury, but he knows he has to keep trying, keep pushing, keep playing until this game is won.”

During a recent visit, Jason teased his family about their efforts.

“You don’t work me enough,” he said, smiling broadly.

Complications after the accident have forced doctors to progress slowly with Jason’s physical therapy. Pneumonia nearly killed him shortly after the injury. A tube inserted in his neck to help him breathe punctured one of his arteries, sending him into emergency surgery. Currently, he is recovering from surgery to treat a number of pressure sores on his body.

Friends describe Jason as a quick, fun-loving youth who entertained them by cracking jokes and drawing Spiderman pictures.

Jason, who continues to watch football and rooted for USC in the Rose Bowl, hopes to study architecture at UCLA.

Residents of Compton, Jason and his brother, Jonathan, had attended private schools most of their lives, most recently St. Anthony’s High School in Long Beach. Smith said she sent the boys out of their home area because she works as a probation officer at the Compton courthouse, where she has contact with a number of juvenile offenders from the family’s neighborhood.

A year ago, Jason and Jonathan decided they wanted to attend public school in Torrance, where they had played Pop Warner football for two years. Because of the danger of allowing them to attend school with the children their mother supervises, the Torrance district allowed them to enroll at Torrance High School.

The boys took part in summer football training with the sophomore team. Because the first game of the season took place before classes began, Jason never met most of his classmates.

Although Jason’s accident had little initial impact on the school, the incident caused “a lot of soul-searching” in the football program, Bynum said, prompting several team members to consider quitting the sport and generating a flood of telephone calls from worried parents.

“Everybody was very, very tentative in their play until they finally realized that if you don’t play your hardest, you have a greater chance to be hurt,” Bynum said. “They dedicated their season to Jason and not a one dropped out.”

Not even Jason’s twin brother, Jonathan.

“He knows it was a freak accident and Jon wants to play,” Smith said. “I can’t protect my children from everything.”

Jonathan, who was on the sideline waiting his turn to play when Jason was hurt, said he is proud of how his brother has faced his injuries.

“He’s been doing quite good,” Jonathan said. “We talk about him giving 110% when he’s doing his exercises. He’s taking it good.”

Bynum recently created a trust fund for Jason at Torrance National Bank that he hopes ultimately will pay for educational equipment, a wheelchair and physical therapy. The fund may also be used to make Jason’s house more accessible for a wheelchair, Bynum said.

So far, local businesses have donated about $1,500. Students already have raised enough money to buy Jason a Walkman stereo and plan to stage a raffle soon to raise more money.

“If we can get enough people involved, I think we can get some significant things going. Jason’s needs are going to go on for a long time,” Bynum said.

“We pray for him, and if the big guy upstairs listens, then great. . . . I’m a big believer. I think he’ll be the kid that will get out of it.”