Perspective | His senior year included a varsity goal, a coma and — finally — prom

And it was. Because the friend was a celebrity that night.

Ian Balutis, 18, had a banging start to senior year, scoring his first varsity goal for the Gonzaga College High School water polo team against the U.S. Naval Academy team on Aug. 28. Ian was at Inova Fairfax, using his eyes to communicate with his mom and breathing through a tube, then at Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters in Norfolk, the closest bed they could find for his recovery process.He didn’t do anything wrong, we kept thinking, as we tried to process what happened. This wasn’t a car accident or risky behavior or karma for any of the abhorrent things teen boys do.

Throughout the hospital, the staff began talking about the charismatic kid upstairs. Outside, a stranger passing by said: “You’re Ian!”after doctors quickly learned he was the best choice to test new equipment, to pair with incoming kids who were devastated by their circumstances, to be an ambassador for a new life he never asked for.

By March, the tube was gone and his neck wound began to heal. He planned to change his major from filmmaking to nursing. His upper body strength returned. His core strengthened. He could shoot hoops. From the chair.“We should go to prom together,” he told my son, back in March. “I want to dance at prom and walk at graduation.”

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