Goalie recovers from life-threatening hit

Back in action 2 months later

Head soccer coach Dusty Richard (right) at Brooks School with Glen Martin, a goalie who underwent three surgeries to repair his internal organs. (Joanne Rathe/Globe Staff)

The collision, initially, resembled a number of others a soccer goalie might absorb during the course of a season.

A hit to the midsection of Glen Martin, at its worst, would have knocked the wind out of the Andover teen for a few minutes.

But the injury, suffered in his second game as the starting goalie at Brooks, a private school in North Andover, turned into a two-month, life-threatening, and life-changing experience.

On Sept. 24, Martin charged out from his goal, using his 5-foot-7, 145-pound frame to deflect a shot off the foot of a Groton player.

"It was a one-on-one with another player so I threw my body out there to save the ball," said Martin. "I felt his knee go right into my stomach, and I went down thinking the air was knocked out of me.

"Then I still felt really bad pain, and I couldn't sit down on the bench. I just kept lying down on the ground."

Martin's father, Melvin, a nationally licensed soccer referee, arrived at the field seconds after his son went down.

"In all the games I've seen or worked in, you see this type of hit sometimes," said Melvin Martin. "His teammates described the play to me and they said it wasn't that unusual, but I could tell from Glen's behavior something was not right. He was just lying on the ground, horizontally, clutching his stomach. He couldn't even sit on the bench, so I knew something was wrong."

A CAT scan at the nearest hospital, Nashoba Medical Center, revealed a lacerated liver, and Martin was flown to Boston Children's Hospital for immediate care.

Further tests revealed Martin had lacerated his liver, pancreas, and duodenum in two places. The first of Martin's three surgeries lasted 10 hours, allowing his lead surgeon, Dr. Thomas Hamilton, to gauge the severity of Martin's injuries.

"The doctors went in and explored what was wrong," said Melvin Martin. "We got there on a Tuesday, they monitored him overnight, then did more scans the next morning, and within minutes of getting those scan results, he was in the [operating room]. That was the toughest thing for Glen, not seeing his mother or brother before surgery."

Martin's mother, Sheila, and his older brother, Robert, arrived later that evening to learn that he would require a second operation to repair the lacerations and stop the internal bleeding.

After the second surgery, lasting more than seven hours, Martin was placed in the intensive care unit until a third surgery was performed, after his internal organs were less inflamed.

"The doctors said they'd never seen anything like this before and probably wouldn't" again, said Glen Martin, who dropped to 125 pounds following the surgeries but now is back to 132. "They had to do another surgery because things were so inflamed that they had to wait to actually close me up. They said it's the kind of stuff they see in car accidents, but not in a sports injury. If I'd waited one more day to have surgery, I would've probably died."

On Nov. 7, Martin was released from the hospital, returning to school one week later. Zack Allen, his best friend, was among many moved by Martin's return.

"I saw him that Monday, and he said he'd be back in school by Friday," said Allen, a sophomore on Brooks's junior varsity soccer squad. "The night before, we were on Skype [an internet phone service], and I was totally surprised how good he looked. The whole thing was so nerve-racking. I've known him since I was in third grade, and yeah, I had those natural concerns for him."

A sophomore, Martin is back and has been a welcome addition to the Brooks squad. The 15-year-old plays year-round, splitting time between the high school season and his two club teams, the Seacoast United and the Boston Blast, the latter of which he has helped propel to national prominence. And he's a relative newcomer in net, having made the move from the midfield position just two years ago.

Earlier this year, Martin was selected for the Regional 1 team. Last summer, he tried out for the New England Revolution Junior Under-16 team, but missed the cut.

Still, Martin had made his mark with the Revolution.

"When I was in the [intensive care unit], two Revolution starting defenders came to visit me. I was so out of it, I don't remember who they were," said Martin. "Then on Halloween, Taylor Twellman showed up randomly. The Revs' starting goalie [Matt Reis] showed up a few days later and brought me a signed pair of used goalie gloves and a signed used jersey. It was so nice."

Students at Andover High, where Martin's brother, Robert, is a senior on the soccer team, as well as his classmates and teammates at Brooks reached out to their friend.

Said Brooks's assistant coach Willie Waters, "We thought about him all season. The kids brought his jersey to every game to keep him on the bench with us."

"I can't say enough thanks to my doctors, to the schools, and my friends," said Martin.

"The school made a plan so I won't have to stay behind in my classes. My friends from Andover High were there along with my Brooks friends. I made individual friendships with my nurses. They're like a second family. The experience was scary, but I learned so much from it."

Sapna Pathak can be reached at sportsgalsp@gmail.com.