Injured Teen Risks Death to Play Soccer

A teen soccer player had his skull rebuilt
after an accident and is now playing for his team again, even though a
single header could kill him.


Tom Buckett, 17, spent two weeks in a coma
after smashing his skull "like an egg" in a 15-foot plunge through a
glass skylight when he tried to retrieve a lost ball.


The talented striker almost died, and doctors warned that he would never play soccer again.
After his coma, he was paralyzed down one side and unable to speak.


But he made a miracle recovery after
becoming only the third UK person to have a bone cranioplasty, which saw
a fake skull glued to his head. After months of intensive
physiotherapy, he returned to the field.


Buckett, a fan of English Premier League team Stoke City, has to wear a plastic helmet for games and was warned that heading the ball could prove fatal.


But he said, "I'm so excited to be playing
again. I've been waiting for this moment for a long time. [Soccer] is my
life, and I'm just glad the fall didn't take that away."
Of doctors' warnings, he said, "I've been told not to head the ball in
case my skull caves in and kills me. It sounds scary, but I'm not
worried. I'm just happy I'm playing again."
Source

daum that must suck going through that pain.