Ever since he was little, Ben Salazar has always found a way to play baseball.'My oldest tried his first t-ball at five and Benny was four and he just couldn't
"My oldest tried his first t-ball at five and Ben ny was four and he just couldn't stand that he couldn't be out there," said Kori Salazar, Ben 's mom. "He loved to catch even then." " Catching always been such a beautiful thing to me because I'm involved in every single play," said Ben .
Back in February, he was gearing up for his junior season. "We did a lot of catching drills and stuff that particular day," said Jody Medina, the MacArthur head baseball coach."The next day he came in and said he had a little tightness and soreness in his leg," said Medina."The next day it was kinda worse and we though ok well maybe he's dehydrated," said Kori."They found a cyst on my mid-brain," said Ben. "We call it a cyst but it's actually a little extraneous piece of brain matter that just may have been there his entire life," said Kori."Basically the cerebral spinal fluid in the brain is not being drained appropriately," said Dr. Mark Lee, the chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Children's Hospital of San Antonio. "So all my spinal fluid was kinda stuck up in there causing pressure on different parts of my brain that were messing up my functions," said Ben."Literally it was a six millimeter lesion which is essentially like an eighth of an inch," said Dr. Lee."It was probably the most terrifying week I've ever had," said Kori.Dr. Lee performed Ben's operation. "Ben kinda blew me away he wasn't scared although he was appropriately nervous," said Dr. Lee. "Very very upbeat, super positive attitude. With Ben and his family it was so easy. We were teammates from the beginning."But still ahead was a long road to recovery. "We left the hospital the day after the surgery and he was even having trouble getting the fork up to his mouth," said Kori."He took it in stride and he's been able to handle this with a smile on his face and make it into a positive thing has been such a tremendous positive impact on our team," said Medina.In a few short weeks, he's made remarkable progress. "When I first started physical therapy I couldn't even think about doing the stuff I was doing now," said Ben.In addition to physical therapy, Ben never missed a beat with his Brahmas teammates. "Having him around is really what helps the guys see ok I'm not going to complain about me," said Medina. "They see him there and it's a quick reminder they shouldn't take it for granted that they're able to practice and things like that because Ben's there waiting to get on the field."And he's not planning on stopping anytime soon."I have no doubts given his attitude and his drive that he's going to be back and doing what he needs to be doing for his team," said Dr. Lee. "Everyone fully believes that he's going to be with us next year fully geared out ready to catch some games for us," said Medina.
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