COLUMBUS, Ohio — So many people saw a picture, Monday, showing Olentangy High School soccer players outside Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
They were standing. Arms raised. Signs in hand. Looking up.
Ten stories above them from a hospital room window sat the reason they were there.
“It was really cool,” Jill Medley said.
“That was probably, honestly, the first time he’s smiled since he’s been in here,” Bryan Medley said.
Jill and Bryan Medley are the parents of 15-year-old Olentangy Orange sophomore, Marshall Medley. The last four days have been spent inside their son’s hospital room.
“It’s like one of those things that you think it’s not real,” Jill said. “I still haven’t accepted that it’s truly happened.”
It happened Saturday during a JV soccer game against Beavercreek.
“Is there anything that you can say about what happened,” 10TV Reporter Bryant Somerville asked.
“No comment about how it happened,” Bryan said.
“I think we can say what has been put out there and everybody has read that it was a flagrant foul after the whistle,” Jill said.
It caused a C-5 fracture in Marshall’s neck and a spinal cord injury. Four days removed, Marshall can walk but is having problems in his arms and hands with limited mobility and being hyper sensitive to touch.
“We were told 90 percent of people with this injury would not be up yet, if at all,” Jill said. “He’s lucky. Very, very lucky.”
Following the injury, Marshall and his family say they have been overwhelmed with love and well wishes from a hand-painted rock outside Orange’s high school to cards, gifts and tweets. Marshall has heard from the Columbus Crew and received a signed jersey from the Ohio Wesleyan soccer team, according to Bryan.
At Tuesday night’s Orange soccer game there was a seven second period of applause, which was a nod to Marshall’s number. Marshall also watched the live stream of that game online. The team also had shirts made and signed a soccer ball that now sits in Marshall’s hospital room.
“I think it’s a good testament to him and his friends and how good of a friend he’s been to others at this point in his young life,” Jill said. “They’ve really rallied around him and it’s a good group of kids.”
Marshall’s parents say he is looking at months of occupational and physical therapy and rehab to get full function back in his arms.
The Ohio High School Athletic Association told 10TV the following:
“We don’t yet have a report from the lead official regarding this incident, so that either means that he/she didn’t see the incident and therefore there was no penalty, or perhaps there was a penalty (red card) issued and the official just hasn’t issued a report yet.”
A spokesperson with Olentangy says they will not comment on the incident. Phone calls and messages to the Beavercreek School District have not been returned.