CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WNCN) — Twelve-year-old Lee Fitch looks right at home competing for his Phillips Middle School basketball team in Chapel Hill. It’s hard to imagine that less than three years ago, young Lee nearly died.
“You know when you’re at the point that you don’t know if your child is going to live or die. It was life-shattering,” said Lee’s mom, Meredith Fitch.
On March 5, 2021, Lee was struck by a moving vehicle while on his bike. A traumatic brain injury forced doctors to place him in a medically induced coma. A week later he came out of the coma but was unable to perform life’s simplest tasks.
“I had to learn to do things you do every single day, and it was kind of tough for me,” said Lee.
The aggressive therapy was not easy, but Lee met the challenge head-on. Imagine not being able to do the things that not long ago were routine.
“Having to learn how to talk again, walk again, write again, brush his teeth to where he is now, back playing sports is just nothing short of amazing,” said Lee’s father, David Fitch.
And that journey has been aided by an organization called Team Impact, which matches children facing serious illness and disability with college sports teams. For Lee, that team is the hometown one — North Carolina.
“It’s so cool,” said Lee. “It’s like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Not many kids at all get to do it and I’m so grateful.”
He may not have suited up for the Tar Heels this past football season but he was a part of the team nonetheless. Meetings, practice, and games — young Lee was right there in the mix.
“Lee has just been an incredible young man to get to know,” said former UNC star lineman Kevin Donnalley. “We’ve just enjoyed so much the time we’ve got to spend with him over the last nine months he’s been a member of our team.”
And from his teammates, Lee has learned some valuable lessons while handing down a few of his own.
“Hey, we’re all going to get in a slump, some of us get knocked down harder than that but we’ve got to crawl out of these holes and get back up and keep going,” David Fitch said. “So it’s been a great experience, no doubt.”
“Yeah, you know it’s really helped his confidence,” said Meredith Fitch. “Those guys have really brought out the best in him.”
And there’s more to come.
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“I have a whole another season, so that’s going to be really fun,” said Lee. “It’s been the absolute coolest, nothing really tops it.”
Except life itself.
“He was at death’s door and then he began progressing,” Meredith Fitch said. “It’s a miracle.”