Columbia City's Mason Baker battles back after life-altering accident

Columbia City's Mason Baker battles back after life-altering accident

Hey good evening everyone..well when you play sports growing up like i did, you hear coaches say it all the time..."play every game like it's your last"...for most people, that's easier said than done..

But for one sophomore on the columbia city basketball team, that mentality is there every time he takes the court... petar hood is in studio tonight with that story...pete?

3 petar hood: thanks prince... mason baker's twitter bio reads.... god gives his toughest warriors the toughest battles... if you believe that to be true, you won't find many young men tougher than mason, who's biggest battle yet began on october 19th, 2017..adelle baker: "mason had came from basketball practice, and i had said, 'i don't really think you should go out on the four-wheeler.

And he was like, 'mom, i promise you... i will help you when i get home.'

Well it wasn't too long after that, my phone rang, and it was a friend of ours, and she had said that he had been in an accident."mason baker: "i just remember i was riding with my friend, and then i drifted off into a ravine.

When i first crashed, i thought i just got the wind knocked out of me.

I just told my friend i was going to be fine.

I was like, 'i'll just get up.

I'll walk out.'

And then i tried to stand up and i fell back down, and that's when i knew it's more than the wind knocked out of me.

I told him i broke my back, and he didn't really believe me."

Narr: but he was right... among other serious injuries, mason fractured 10 vertebrae in his back, and came dangerously close to severing his spinal cord... mason was rushed to the hospital, where he underwent surgery that lasted over seven hours..

Travis baker: "and it probably wasn't until after the surgery that we realized how severe it was, even though they were telling us.

Dr. cashman, who did the surgery and did an excellent job, came in and said he was within a couple millormeters of being paralyzed.

He goes, 'you realize that's a couple sheet of paper at most?'

And it's like, 'oh my.'narr: although the surgery was a success, doctors made the bakers no promises.

There was no guarantee he'd ever walk again... but he wasn't hearing any of that...mason baker: "i just kept on saying i wanted to keep playing basketball.

I never really had doubts that i wasn't going to play again."

Adelle baker: "he never was negative with us.

We were feeling like we weren't sure what was going to happen, but he never wavered.

They told him that it would be a year before he played again.

He told us it would be six months."narr: once again, mason was right... by april, just six months after the surgery, mason was back on the basketball court..brett eberly: "he played for us in the summer in june.

So it happened in october, and all of a sudden, in june he's playing basketball again.

And we're all shaking our heads, like 'how is this happening?'

For him to be able to do that was a tribute to him, to his doctors, to the fact that he just stayed with it and was patient."narr: and that patience is now paying off.

Mason is having a breakout season at columbia city.

The sophomore is averaging nearly six points per game in his first year on varsity.

But for mason, those stats don't mean as much as they used to.

At the end of the day, he's just grateful he still gets to play the game he loves in front of the people that love him most.

Adelle baker: "it's just amazing that... the fact that he couldn't even really sit up after his accident, and he couldn't bend and do all of thsoe things, so it is truly amazing to watch him run up and down the floor, and jump, and do all of the things that he can do."travis baker: "it is very fulfilling.

To know what that meant to him, to know where he's been and how he got here... you know as parents, there's times where you go, 'oh man, why isn't he scoring better?

Why isn't he doing this or that?'

And then you gotta think to yourself, we're just lucky to see him out here running up and down the court."mason baker: "i just have a different outlook on life now.

Just take what god gives you really.

Just be grateful for what you have, and don't ask for much more."

Petar hood: mason and his eagles will wrap up the regular season with a home game against concordia tomorrow night.