Injured football player says he?s made progress

Doctors are hoping to avoid surgery on a high school football player who injured his neck during a game last weekend.

Westview High sophomore Malik Thomas was carted off the field Saturday and airlifted to Vanderbilt Children?s Hospital. He had feeling in all of his limbs and was not paralyzed.

Doctors say Thomas, 15, chipped his C1 vertebra and cracked both sides of his C2 vertebra. These two vertebrae allow a person to turn their head from side to side. The C1 vertebra also connects the skull to the cervical spine.

Instead of performing surgery, doctors drilled four pins into Thomas? skull to secure a halo and immobilize his head.

By keeping the head stable, they hope the damaged vertebrae will fuse together and not require surgery.

?Doctors told us the C2 would be very hard and dangerous to get to,? said Thomas? aunt, Joyce Hooker. ?That?s why they?re doing the halo to see if it would fuse back by itself.?

Westview and Camden high schools were scoreless late in the second quarter of the season-opener for both teams when Thomas _ a 5-foot-7, 171-pound running back/defensive back _ was hurt.

?They were running a sweep and one of our defensive backs came up and tackled him,? said Camden coach Kevin Ward. ?When you slow it down, you just see he got his neck straight. The impact from that was what caused the injury.?

Westview rallied in the second half to beat Camden, 7-6.

Thomas is expected to remain in the halo for eight weeks. He will miss the rest of this season, and his long-term football future is cloudy.

The teen remained optimistic Monday. He said he?s already made progress and was able to walk around his hospital room on his own.

?I know I could have been paralyzed,? Thomas said. ?I?m just blessed. I know God is looking down on me.?