SU student wins $15m in Seattle School District settlement

Sophomore chemistry major Mackenzie "Mac" Clay hazily awoke lying on a Harborview Hospital bed one Sunday morning in January 2007. Lying on his back, a breathing tube in his neck, he was barely able to move his arms. The last thing he could remember was wrestling practice on Friday.

Clay had been practicing with his teammates in West Seattle High School's cafeteria when he collided mid-air with a fellow teammate. He suffered a partial spinal cord injury, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down with limited upper-body mobility.

Initially, his doctors thought his situation was much worse.

"It was a pretty big deal when they [the doctors] decided I would be able to breathe on my own," Clay said.

Clay's lifetime medical expenses and care needs may reach around $29 million. He recently settled a personal injury lawsuit filed on his behalf against the Seattle School District for $15 million dollars.

School district spokesman David Tucker said the district's insurer would pay most of the settlement, $1 million of which has already been budgeted out.

"This was a very tragic wrestling accident," Tucker said in a statement. "We've been involved in intense discussions, and the district is in ongoing negotiation."

"It was mostly about the way the practice was run, and the way it was supervised," Clay said of the suit. "The coaches were having us do things that we weren't supposed to be doing."

Clay said he is relieved his legal struggles are over.

"I'm happy we were able to settle," he says. "I know some people who have had personal injury lawsuits that have dragged out for six, seven or eight years."

Clay's settlement was reached less than a month before the case was scheduled to go to trial April 6.

Clay was a standout high school athlete and also cellist of 11 years.

Mac spent two months in rehab after his accident. Despite being confined to a wheelchair, Clay discovered a way to continue a life of athleticism while in rehab.

One of his therapists gave him the movie "Murderball," a 2005 documentary about wheelchair rugby, or quad rugby.

"I probably watched the movie 100 times," Clay said. "When I got out of rehab, I called the Seattle-area team and went to one of their practices the next day."

A full contact sport, wheelchair rugby is played by athletes with quadriplegia. The four versus four game usually takes place on an indoor hardwood court.

Clay has played with Seattle's quad rugby team, the Seattle Slam, for two years. The team took fifth in the Pacific Sectional Tournament, held the weekend of May 13-15 at Seattle University.

The Seattle Slam also beat out three other Northwest quad rugby teams and placed first in the second pool at an invitational tournament in Vancouver, British Columbia March 29.

"It's an awesome sport," said Clay, who is one of the team's youngest members.

Clay, who lives in Bellarmine with his twin brother Cameron, attends physical therapy once a week to increase the range of motion in his arms. He lacks function in his triceps and fingers, but he has regained function in his biceps, upper shoulders and wrists.

He uses a writing aide, a device that holds a pen on his hand, enabling him to take notes in class, "although it took awhile for my handwriting to be OK," he said.

Clay reported few problems accessing buildings on Seattle U's campus in his wheelchair.

"So far everything, and everyone at Seattle U has been great," he said. "Except when the elevators break. The one in Bannon broke, and I got stranded on the fifth floor for awhile. That was not fun."

Clay said his condition could be worse.

"I actually have quite a bit of function compared to other people injured at the same place," he said.

Carol Wolfe-Clay, Mac's mother and chair of Seattle U's Fine Arts Department, said her son's injury took a toll on the entire family.

"It was life altering for all of us," she said "As a mother, I hope that most people will never have to experience this kind of pain."

She added, however, that Clay retains a positive outlook on life.

"He is incredibly driven," she said. "Mac is just the type of person to always keep going."

Mac plans to attend graduate school after he finishes his degree at Seattle U. He regularly visits spinal cord injury patients at Children's Hospital.

"I like telling people how much they can actually do, even with the limited function they may have," he said.