WASHINGTON — In what family and friends are calling a miracle, a 6-year-old who had suffered a major head injury after a winter sledding accident in his McLean, Va., neighborhood, went on his first outing outside the hospital Saturday — to the baseball diamond.
While Bensten Schone did not play, he threw out the first pitch on opening day at the McLean Little League baseball complex Saturday, with Washington National’s outfielder Jayson Werth, one of the boy’s sports idols, catching at home plate, according to The Washington Post.
“The way the league has supported us is beyond a beautiful thing,” mother Heather Bensten Schone told the paper. “This community is a phenomenal place to live.”
Bensten was struck by a passing car driven by a 65-year-old McLean woman on Jan. 28, as he was sledding down a driveway onto his street. As he lay in a medically-induced coma, his family rallied around him, enlisting support from the boy’s favorite sports team, the Washington Capitals, which took up the boy’s banner, producing and sharing videos of well-wishes, spreading the word with the hashtag #Pray4Bman on Twitter, and enjoining the support of the greater Washington, D.C. community and beyond.
His family had initially reached out to the Caps in hopes of generating prayers, and the team ran with it, documenting much of the family’s efforts on the hockey team’s unofficial blog, Russian Machine Never Breaks, and on Twitter at @RussianMachine. The smiling six-year-old has since met his hockey heroes during a surprise visit to his McLean home, and even has his own official hockey card (shown below).
The Schone’s gratitude was shared with the team in a thank you video created by Bensten’s uncles, and is now displayed on the blog, along with a statement by Heather and Lance Schone, Bensten’s dad:
As we have said over and over again, there are no words to thank you for supporting us through these past few months. The night we arrived at INOVA, the trauma doctors told us we were in for a roller coaster ride. No truer words have ever been spoken. But thanks to YOU, we are still standing.
Heather would not go into details about Bensten’s current progress, but told The Post he was undergoing robust occupational and physical therapy, as well as tutoring for school. “He has just a fighter’s mentality,” she told the paper. “He attacks his therapy every day … We’re just enjoying every day with him.”
Now Bensten is featured on his very own hockey card http://t.co/TwcwDh5OHv pic.twitter.com/Ub2ta9GHNp
— RMNB (@russianmachine) March 25, 2015
From earlier: The #Caps surprised Bensten at his McLean, Virginia home today http://t.co/aEUY7OxuPa pic.twitter.com/LhRhzEgHGI
— RMNB (@russianmachine) March 24, 2015
