GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Months after a younger hockey participant checked in at Mary Free Mattress Rehabilitation Hospital, it is secure to say he earned his tap-out.
Sitting beside his mother, dad and two brothers in a hospital mattress, 11-year-old Mason Madden anxiously waited for a nurse to chop the safety bracelet from his ankle.
“I’m leaving this place after three months,” Madden informed Information 8. “Feels like forever.”
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It was all smiles Friday morning as Mary Free Mattress workers and two members of the Grandville varsity hockey crew lined the halls. The younger participant requested maize and blue for his departure celebration, and his caretakers went above and past with pom-poms and hockey sticks, tapping them on the bottom as Mason handed by.
“I knew we had a good support system, but I mean, the amount of people that have shown their love and support … it’s phenomenal,” stated Mason’s mother Stephanie Madden.
Mason Madden leaves Mary Free Mattress on March 21, 2025. (Courtesy Mary Free Mattress)
Mason was a seemingly wholesome boy, taking part in for the Grand Valley Stars and having fun with actions that the majority 11-year-olds do. That was till January 2024.
“Mason had what we thought was a leg injury, and we spent most of 2024 trying to figure out what exactly it was,” stated Mike Madden, Mason’s father. “We thought it started out as a muscle strain and then it turned into a potential fractured femur. And through lots of doctor’s visits and stuff, it didn’t get better. Through therapy, it didn’t get better. So we ended up checking them into Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital on December 10, and on Dec. 13, they found a large tumor in the spinal cord.”
Mason had emergency surgical procedure to take away the tumor and has spent the previous few months engaged on restoration, together with relearning stroll and do on a regular basis duties.
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When requested what he informed himself each day to push by, the 11-year-old stated, “If I don’t do the therapy, I will never get better.”
His purpose now’s to stroll once more — and he has lots of people cheering him on.
Final month, recent off a regional championship win towards Byron Heart, your complete Grandville varsity hockey crew stopped by Mary Free Mattress to go to Mason.
Then, earlier this week, he bought to play sled hockey with some Grand Rapids Griffins gamers.
Grand Rapids Griffins gamers go to Mason Madden on March 19, 2025. (Courtesy of Mary Free Mattress)
He hopes to be again on the ice very quickly.
“He could play sled hockey if he isn’t strong enough to skate again, but the hope is, hopefully he can skate again,” Stephanie Madden stated.
The journey has been removed from simple for the Madden household.
“We’ve both still been working, so it’s been hard,” Stephanie Madden stated. “Everybody asks me, you know, ‘What can we do for you?’ I said and I always say, ‘Can you clone me so I can be in a couple different places at once?’ So I can spend time with him, spend time with my other two kids and my husband and still work. It’s just, it’s been a lot.”
Having Mason again residence will ease a few of that stress, however he nonetheless has an extended street to restoration. That is why the Madden’s are taking it in the future at a time and accepting all of the assist alongside the best way.
Stephanie added: “Even if you’re strong and you don’t think you need help, you do need help in some way, shape or form.”
