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Adams County mother pushing for school to pay for son’s severe injuries from gym class

NEW OXFORD, ADAMS COUNTY — The mother of an Adams County high school student is asking a local school district to pay his medical bills after her son was ...
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NEW OXFORD, ADAMS COUNTY -- The mother of an Adams County high school student is asking a local school district to pay his medical bills after her son was severely injured at school.

Brandy Markel says she's now left with thousands of dollars in medical bills after her 16-year-old son was severely injured while playing golf in gym class at New Oxford Senior High School.

School officials contacted Markel as her son was rushed to the hospital.

"The nurse got on the phone and she says I can see his skull," said Markel.

CT scans revealed her son had a severe fracture to his skull, requiring emergency surgery.

"They had to fix the fracture because it was an indented fracture and there was air inside his skull like next to his brain." said Markel.

After nearly two days in the hospital her son Damon is now home, but has a long road of recovery ahead of him.

"He now has to be on a seizure medication for the next week to be sure there is no seizures which could ultimately affect the rest of his life," said Markel.

Markel says she is concerned about how she will be able to afford the medical bills without any insurance.

"It's me and my two kids, I have to cover everything working one job," said Markel. "I have to take off work to take him to doctors appointments, I don't have vacation pay," she added.

FOX43 reached out to Conewago Valley School District for comment regarding the incident and they replied in part quote:

“We feel terrible that Damon and the responsible student were involved in this unfortunate accident.  Both are fine young men and the student responsible feels terrible about what happened to Damon. The CVSD family wishes him a speedy recovery.

"The school offers health insurance/CHIP to families for these types of incidents.

"Parents are provided with the opportunity to obtain accident health insurance for school time only ($28.00 a year) or 24/7 coverage ($98.00 per year) at the beginning of the year.  Families that can't afford insurance may be eligible for CHIP."

However, Markel says her family is not eligible for any of those options.

She says she understands accidents happen but still believes the school should be held responsible.

"I was ridiculously surprised that they didn't even offer anything or reach out and say hey we're going to take responsibility it happened during school hours," said Markel.

Markel says she hopes the school district will come around.

If they don't, she says she's considering taking legal action against the school.

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