Paralyzed man completes marathon 3 years after accident took away his ability to walk as a teenager

Mason Branstrator is going the distance – one way or another.

The youngster, now 20, has just completed his first marathon in a wheelchair three years after breaking his T-12 vertebrae in a skiing accident that saw him paralyzed from the waist down.

“I was going for a normal day of downhill skiing, but this time it was a lot different,” Mason told CBS News.

“I remember thinking right when I left the dance, ‘I’m going a little too fast.’ And that was the last thing I remember before it all faded away.”

While in the ICU, the 17-year-old athlete learned that he might never regain the ability to walk—much less continue to ski, run, and play all of his favorite sports.

“In the ICU, multiple doctors came into my room and said, ‘Mason, you may not be able to walk.’ And in the eyes and mind of someone who was 17, I had no idea what was going on. That was devastating,” he said.

Branstrator spent just over a week in the ICU before being airlifted to Craig Hospital in Colorado, where he underwent four months of paralysis rehabilitation. During that time he struggled to come to terms with the fact that he would never fully regain the ability to walk.

“About a year and a half after my accident, I had come to the point where I realized that walking was not going to be a very functional thing for me to continue to pursue and it was time to see everything else that the world of wheelchairs had to offer. offered. he said.

“I had all these people giving me offers to play adaptive sports and try them, but I kept putting it off. And I finally realized it was time to live life.”

Since getting into his wheelchair, Branstrator has realized the device could change his life in ways he never imagined, including becoming a content creator with nearly 270,000 Instagram followers.

“The first time I got into a wheelchair in rehab, I felt so free,” he said.

“In this really difficult situation, you are given freedom and independence. And I have always been so grateful for my wheelchair. And people look at the wheelchair and say, ‘This thing is bad. It’s terrible to be confined to a wheelchair.’ But this cart does not limit me. It is actually my freedom.”

He shared that instead of slowing him down, his wheelchair has helped him move forward even faster.

“Now I just zoom everywhere,” Branstrator told the Duluth News Tribune. “I have my electric connection – I go faster than the average person everywhere.”

He plays tennis, swims, kayaks, surfs and recently completed a marathon.

Last month, he returned to his hometown of Duluth, Minnesota to compete in the annual Grandma’s Marathon as part of the wheelchair competition.

The para-athlete trained with 1996 USA Paralympian and 2006 Grandmother Marathon runner-up Jacob Heilveil and raced in his new custom-fitted racing chair.

He clocked in at 2:03:52 minutes.

Branstrator admitted that some things have become more difficult since his accident, like getting into a car and taking an escalator, but overall he has an optimistic spirit — which he shares through his social media and mentoring at Craig Hospital.

“I also think that with serious hardship can come a lot of joy and gratitude for life.” Branstrator told the Duluth News Tribune.