Seventeen-year-old Max Conradt is viciously slammed down by a 280-pound linebacker during a high school football game. He continues to play and by the end of the game, after many punishing tackles, Conradt collapses into his stepmother's arms. Underneath his helmet, Conradt's brain was swelling.
He was dying - fast.
He was in a coma for two months with a catastrophic traumatic brain injury and had three operations to relieve the pressure on his swelling brain. Max's father Ralph is coming unglued, because doctors say his son probably will not make it.
Did Max live?
In the end we find out he did, but it’s not much of a life. Max lives in a home for brain damaged adults. He will never hold down a job, he will never function independently.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta tells Max's story on American Morning.