NEXT WEEK. BEN: WE HAVE AN UPDATE OAN LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL HOCKEY PLAYER WHO WAS SERIOLYUS HURT ON THE ICE. WE’RE GETTING AN UP CLOSE LOOK AT HIS TREATMENT. YOU MIGHT REMEMBER JAKE THIBEAULT FROM FITCHBURG JESSICA: HE HAD A SERIOUS SPINAL CORD INJURY THAT HAPPENED DURING AND SINCE THEN HE’S HAD ONE MISSION TO WALK AGAIN. JAKE HAS BEEN GOING TO PHYSICAL THERAPY AT SPAULING REHAB AND TAKE A LOOK AT THE PROGRESS HE’S MAKING. SPAULDING SENDING THESE VIDEOS TO US. REMEMBER JAKE OKBRE TWO VERTEBRAINE HIS BACK AND SUFFERED A SMALL BRAIN BLEED WHILE PLAYING WITH HIS CLUB TEAM THE BOONST BULLDOGS. HE OLLIDED WITH ANOTHER PLAYER, HIT THE BOARDS, AND THEN DROPPED TO THE ICE. DOCTORS TELLING HIM THEY HAD TO PLACE SCREWS AND RODS TO HOLD HIS SPINAL CORD IN PLACE HE WASN’T GETTING MOVEMENT FROM THE WAIST DOWN. BUT NOW LOOK AT H GIMETTING STRONGER. JAKE AND HIS FAMILY CREDITING SPAULDING REHABILITATION NETRKWO FOR HELPING JAKE TO GET CKP.BA >> I TOLD MY PARENTS I HAVE AN ORDER. I’M GONNA WALK, THEN RUN, THEN SKATE, AND I MAY SKIP RUN AND TRY TO SKATE FIRST. BUT IT TRULY GOES BACK TO JUST THE NO QUIT, AND I’M REFUSING TO LO. >>AND TAT’S JAKE. HE GETS FIRED UP, AND HE, FROM THAT DAY FORWARD, ISTH HAS BEEN HIS FOCUS, TO WALK AGAIN AND TO DO EVERYTHING HE POSSIBLY CAN. AND EVERY SINGLE DAY HE WAKES UP AND HE SAYS, IT’S A NEW DAY, MOM, LET’SO. G >>THERAPY WAS EXTREMELY HARD FOR HIM. IT WAS HARD WORK, BUT THERE WAS A TON OF LAUGHTER, A TON OF JOY. THEY JUST PUT US AT EASE. WE FELLIT KE OUR SON IS GETTING CARED FOR NOT JUST PHYSICALLY, BUT EMOTIONAY.LL JESSICA: SPAULDING EVEN PROVIDED LODGGIN AND RESOURCES FOR THE THIBEAULT FAMILY SO THEY COULD BE CLOSE TO JAKE WHILE HE GOES THROUGH THERAPY. JAKE SAYS THE THERAPISTS THERE ARE LIKE FAMILY TO HIM NOT ONLY HELPING HIM PHYSICALLY BUT ALSO EMOTIONAY.LL BEN: WELL DONE BY THE F
‘I’m refusing to lose’: Teen injured in hockey game vows to walk again
Updated: 5:22 AM EST Feb 3, 2022
A Massachusetts youth hockey player who suffered a serious spinal cord injury on the ice and the Boston hospital where he is rehabilitating are offering an inside look at the work he is doing to walk again.Jake Thibeault, of Fitchburg, broke two vertebrae in his back and suffered a small brain bleed on Sept. 4, 2021, while playing with his club team, the 18-and-under Boston Bulldogs, at the Eastern Alliance Kickoff tournament over Labor Day weekend.The 18-year-old suffered those injuries when he collided with an opposing player, fell to the ice and went headfirst into the end boards. He remained down and had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher.”I truly believe it was a gift. I don’t have any memory of the complete accident,” Thibeault said. “The shift before my injury, I skated down the left side, cut to the middle, I scored, and then I remember going on faceoff, and then I don’t remember much from there.”Thibeault was brought to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, where he had screws and rods placed in his back to hold his spinal cord in place. Unfortunately, the Milton Academy student who dreamed of playing college hockey was unable to move his extremities from the waist down.”The surgeon walked in. He was standing to my left and I just asked him, ‘Am I gonna walk again?’ And he said to me, ‘Your chances are low,’ and I was like, ‘I’m ready to fight,'” Thibeault said. “I’ve been kind of an underdog in hockey and in multiple things where I’ve had to go that extra mile. I’ve had to work a little extra harder. Those years of having to fight hard for what I want has helped me to now face the biggest challenge yet and, hopefully, I have to ever face.”With Thibeault in need of long-term rehabilitation, his parents turned to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood.He said one of the therapists at Spaulding Rehab put him right to work on his first day there, setting him up on a tilt table with dumbbells in his hands.In addition, the Thibeault family received help from Spaulding’s Supportive Surroundings program during Jake’s inpatient and outpatient care. The donor-funded program provides lodging and resources to patients and families at Spaulding Rehab.”We weren’t sure where to go after UMass. We came out to Spaulding, and we knew when we left there, this is where Jake needs to be,” said Mike Thibeault, Jake’s father. “They just couldn’t be more accommodating. Every phone call, every meeting was: ‘What do you need? Are you okay with this? Are you okay with that?’ And we just wanted a roof over our head. We just wanted to be as close as possible to our son, and they just answered every single call, even before we got here.””And when they brought us into this apartment and told us we could stay here, it was amazing,” said Tracy Thibeault, Jake’s mother. “It just brings such a comfort and a calm to be close to your loved one when they’re in the hospital, and then to be able to bring them home here before we actually go home is a calming thing also, and just such a benefit. And if you have the opportunity to donate, it goes beyond words. It goes beyond emotions.”According to Jake, he would not be in the improved condition and physical state that he is today without the team at Spaulding.”My therapists at Spaulding, I will know and talk to for the rest of my life ’cause they have an impact on my life that not many people have had,” Jake said. “I see them when I go for outpatient, and it’s like they are family. It’s no hesitation. We hug each other, we say hello. And the day I left the hospital, a lot of tears were shed because it was like you were kind of leaving that family.”I told my parents I have an order. I’m gonna walk, then run, then skate, and I may skip run and try to skate first. But it truly goes back to just the no quit, and I’m refusing to lose,” he added. “And that stuck with me to this day, and it will stick with me until I’m on my feet, walking into Spaulding to say hi to my therapists.”Multiple fundraisers have been held to help the Thibeault family in the months since Jake’s on-ice injury, including one by Boston Bruins legend Ray Bourque.
A Massachusetts youth hockey player who suffered a serious spinal cord injury on the ice and the Boston hospital where he is rehabilitating are offering an inside look at the work he is doing to walk again.
Jake Thibeault, of Fitchburg, broke two vertebrae in his back and suffered a small brain bleed on Sept. 4, 2021, while playing with his club team, the 18-and-under Boston Bulldogs, at the Eastern Alliance Kickoff tournament over Labor Day weekend.
The 18-year-old suffered those injuries when he collided with an opposing player, fell to the ice and went headfirst into the end boards. He remained down and had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher.
“I truly believe it was a gift. I don’t have any memory of the complete accident,” Thibeault said. “The shift before my injury, I skated down the left side, cut to the middle, I scored, and then I remember going on faceoff, and then I don’t remember much from there.”
Thibeault was brought to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, where he had screws and rods placed in his back to hold his spinal cord in place. Unfortunately, the Milton Academy student who dreamed of playing college hockey was unable to move his extremities from the waist down.
“The surgeon walked in. He was standing to my left and I just asked him, ‘Am I gonna walk again?’ And he said to me, ‘Your chances are low,’ and I was like, ‘I’m ready to fight,'” Thibeault said. “I’ve been kind of an underdog in hockey and in multiple things where I’ve had to go that extra mile. I’ve had to work a little extra harder. Those years of having to fight hard for what I want has helped me to now face the biggest challenge yet and, hopefully, I have to ever face.”
With Thibeault in need of long-term rehabilitation, his parents turned to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood.
He said one of the therapists at Spaulding Rehab put him right to work on his first day there, setting him up on a tilt table with dumbbells in his hands.
In addition, the Thibeault family received help from Spaulding’s Supportive Surroundings program during Jake’s inpatient and outpatient care. The donor-funded program provides lodging and resources to patients and families at Spaulding Rehab.
“We weren’t sure where to go after UMass. We came out to Spaulding, and we knew when we left there, this is where Jake needs to be,” said Mike Thibeault, Jake’s father. “They just couldn’t be more accommodating. Every phone call, every meeting was: ‘What do you need? Are you okay with this? Are you okay with that?’ And we just wanted a roof over our head. We just wanted to be as close as possible to our son, and they just answered every single call, even before we got here.”
“And when they brought us into this apartment and told us we could stay here, it was amazing,” said Tracy Thibeault, Jake’s mother. “It just brings such a comfort and a calm to be close to your loved one when they’re in the hospital, and then to be able to bring them home here before we actually go home is a calming thing also, and just such a benefit. And if you have the opportunity to donate, it goes beyond words. It goes beyond emotions.”
According to Jake, he would not be in the improved condition and physical state that he is today without the team at Spaulding.
“My therapists at Spaulding, I will know and talk to for the rest of my life ’cause they have an impact on my life that not many people have had,” Jake said. “I see them when I go for outpatient, and it’s like they are family. It’s no hesitation. We hug each other, we say hello. And the day I left the hospital, a lot of tears were shed because it was like you were kind of leaving that family.
“I told my parents I have an order. I’m gonna walk, then run, then skate, and I may skip run and try to skate first. But it truly goes back to just the no quit, and I’m refusing to lose,” he added. “And that stuck with me to this day, and it will stick with me until I’m on my feet, walking into Spaulding to say hi to my therapists.”
Multiple fundraisers have been held to help the Thibeault family in the months since Jake’s on-ice injury, including one by Boston Bruins legend Ray Bourque.
