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Pioneer’s Mitchell overcomes long odds to get to CIF meet
(from commoncentsinvestor)

https://www.dailydemocrat.com/2019/05/23/pioneers-mitchell-overcomes-long-odds-to-get-to-cif-meet/

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Two and a half years ago though, Mitchell and his family weren’t sure if he’d ever be able to jump three feet again let alone 23.

It was then that Mitchell dislocated his right shoulder in a youth football game in eighth grade. He tore his right labrum and a piece of cartilage was torn out of the socket.

The first doctor they saw said there was nothing that could be done.

“He initially was told the cartilage was inoperable and he’d not be able to play sports again,” Mitchell’s father Alan said.

The Mitchells met with a doctor at Shriners Hospital for Children in Sacramento though who got a grant to perform MACI (Matrix-induced Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation) surgery on Mason’s shoulder. MACI is a procedure that involves taking cartilage cells from one part of the body and growing them into a cartilage membrane to be re-implanted where the new cartilage cells will form repair tissue and fill the cartilage defect.

MACI is most commonly performed on knees but Mason’s surgery was the first time it was performed on a shoulder in the U.S. Doctors took cartilage from his knee, sent the cells to Boston where they were grown into a membrane over three months, and returned them to Shriners where Mason had surgery to repair his labrum and insert the new cells.

He was restricted to running only for 18 months and was only cleared for all sports in February. Mitchell’s first officially marked jump at the Honker Mini Invite on February 23rd, where he left with a best of 20'-1?, was his first competition mark in over two years.

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