Flyers throw birthday party to reunite with fan after amazing recovery

Jackie Lithgow had a 23rd birthday so incredible he could hardly believe it was happening.

He went to Flyers practice Jan. 3, as he had done before during his miraculous recovery from a devastating punch to the head four years ago. Only this time, Wayne Simmonds, Sean Couturier, Jakub Voracek and Claude Giroux had a birthday cake and candles waiting for him.
"I turned to my parents and said, 'Is this real?'" Lithgow told NHL.com. "We were standing there with those four guys while we were eating the cake. Jakub Voracek help me cut the cake and helped serve it out and we were just talking like regular guys. It seemed surreal. It was pretty fun because I was just eating cake with four awesome players in the NHL."

The Flyers met Lithgow not long after the incident that put him in a coma for 15 days and led to six surgeries on his skull, plus several other related procedures. He was a freshman at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania in 2014 when he was struck in the head while trying to break up a fight at a fraternity pledge party. In a stroke of good fortune during an otherwise tragic situation, one of the responding officers was a retired Life Flight operator who insisted Lithgow get airlifted to the hospital right away because he had a narrow and shrinking window to survive.
His relationship with the Flyers began while he was learning how to walk and talk again at Magee Rehabilitation Hospital in Philadelphia with the help of Linda Mantai from Flyers Charities. Then-Flyers forward Todd Fedoruk was a team ambassador at the facility and after they met, Lithgow, wheelchair-bound at the time, set a goal to attend a Flyers practice.
"It was hard, but I never had the attitude of, 'OK this happened to me, I'm going to be in a wheelchair in the rest of my life," Lithgow said. "I had the attitude of, this happened to me, I accepted the fact that this wasn't my fault, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. All you can do is live for the present and get better."
Lithgow endured a couple of setbacks during his recovery, including contracting the deadly infection MRSA, and bacterial meningitis. Yet he remained focused on his goal and achieved it in November 2014 when his physical therapist Paula Bonsall wheeled him to the glass at Voorhees Center, the Flyers' practice facility, and helped him to his feet to watch his favorite team so it would count as therapy, which was the only way Magee would permit the outing.
Instagram from @llabaziou: To quote Jackie, this day, this experience and progress shown today, it was "Epic" @philadelphiaflyers #phillylove
He visited the Flyers locker room after practice, where he met the coaching staff and the players, all of whom never forgot him through the years.

In March 2015, Lithgow attended the annual Flyers Wives Carnival event for fans where he chatted with Hakstol and assistant coach Ian Laperriere, and, still in his wheelchair, set another goal to complete the Flyers 5K. Seven months later, he crossed the finish line after walking and jogging with his wheelchair behind him. At the end, to his surprise, Hakstol got on the microphone, introduced him to the crowd and presented him with the Flyers' Seventh Man Award.

By the time Lithgow made it to Flyers practice last week for this birthday, he'd gone to see them play the Pittsburgh Penguins on Jan.2 with tickets he'd received from his parents. He is no longer using a wheelchair, and he's resumed his studies at Bloomsburg, taking one or two classes per semester in pursuit of his degree in Mass Communications. He hopes to one day work for the Flyers.

Giving back to those who helped him during his recovery and assisting others are ongoing goals. Friends raised thousands of dollars to help with his medical expenses, partly through the Jackie Lithgow Golf Tournament. The first two years, they raised money for his expenses, and the last two, he used it to raise $29,000 that Magee spent on new equipment for its patients. Other money raised through his foundation has gone to people in Pennsylvania with traumatic brain injuries.
"It just makes me happy," Lithgow said. "Because I know that I'm helping people who may have been in the same situation I was going through."