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Boston Globe

A brain-injured football player returns home, his life changed forever. His family seeks answers from Sharon officials.

In his largely immobile left hand, he grips a stuffed toy teddy bear — a gift from an ambulance crew that transported him as he lay near death after he suffered a catastrophic brain injury during Sharon's Thanksgiving football game last year. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up His parents, meanwhile, attend to him around the clock while they and others wait for the Sharon school district to accept its share of responsibility for Rohan's devastating plight. Advertisement Three months have passed School administrators have yet to directly address questions about deficiencies, detailed in the Globe report in May, that may have contributed to Rohan's trauma. After spending more than $10,000 on an external investigation, according to a document obtained by the Globe through a public records request, they have not shared any of the investigative report with Rohan's family and have refused to release it to the public. Advertisement Some of the district's purported failures are powerful reminders to schools across the country about the life-or-death consequences of preventing, preparing for, and responding to medical emergencies in sports. 'No other parent should have to worry that what happened to Rohan will happen again,' said his mother, Deepika Talukdar. The district said in a statement, 'Sharon Public Schools continues to keep Rohan and his family in our thoughts and prayers through his recovery. The district maintains its support for the Shukla family while recognizing that a situation of this nature warrants maintaining their privacy.' Rohan's parents said they appreciate the district helping with Rohan's recovery, including preparing for him to possibly return to school one day. But they continue to seek information in the investigative report and said they have been willing to sacrifice privacy in the interest of student safety. School officials said in response to the Globe's records request that they are withholding the investigative report in part because they consider legal action 'reasonably foreseeable.' Rohan's parents declined to comment on possible litigation. The stakes may be sizable given the severe impact on Rohan and his family. Rohan had never needed medical care for anything but annual physicals before Thanksgiving. Now he needs help to perform his most basic bodily functions. He exists, even at home, as a long-term patient as much as a son and sibling. Advertisement The district's most glaring flaw, as the Globe reported, was perhaps not employing a full-time trainer during the 2024 football season, relying instead on part-timers only on game days, despite complaints from numerous coaches, including the head football coach, about player safety. Amid the lack of coverage, Rohan was permitted to return to play without submitting a medical clearance form or receiving a mandatory cognitive evaluation after he suffered a football concussion four weeks before the Thanksgiving game. He then was involved in a helmet-to-helmet collision in the last practice before Thanksgiving — a potentially dangerous blow that went undetected by the coaches. Rohan Shukla is wheeled by his father, Abhishek, down a newly installed ramp in the backyard of the family home. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff The problems outlined by the Globe have prompted townspeople as prominent as the chair of the Sharon School Committee to assert the district bears some responsibility for Rohan's crisis. Rohan was a sophomore honors student before his education abruptly ended on Thanksgiving. 'I do not believe that what happened to Rohan Shukla wasn't preventable,' the committee chair, Avi Shemtov, said during a candidate forum in May. 'I don't think the blame lies really anywhere other than solely with the school district — that includes the school committee and the administration — for not having a full-time athletic trainer." The unreleased investigative report could possibly include flaws in Rohan's case beyond those previously identified by the Globe. School officials, for example, responded in June to the records request by stating they did not possess a written medical emergency response plan for the high school — an apparent violation of state law. By statute, every district must 'ensure that every school under its jurisdiction has a written emergency response plan that addresses both medical and behavioral health crises to reduce the incidence of life-threatening medical emergencies and behavioral health crises and to promote efficient and appropriate responses to such emergencies.' Advertisement The district, however, asserted Friday in its statement for this story that it does possess written medical emergency response plans for every school in the system. Shemtov, the school committee chair, said the board will seek clarity on the matter. 'After being provided the contradictory statements issued by district administration to the Globe, the school committee is aware of the discrepancy and will be looking into it,' he said. Notable among the additional factors the Globe cited in Rohan's case was the district's decision to replace Sharon High's full-time athletic director before the 2024 season with an administrator who served as both a vice principal and athletic director — a formidable challenge for a school of Sharon's size, with an enrollment of 1,161 and 50 boys' and girls' sports teams. What's more, Sharon officials pitted their low-rated football team against a lineup of punishing opponents. Fourteen Sharon players missed multiple games because of injuries as the team went winless in 11 contests, losing by an average of nearly 40 points. Rohan and five teammates suffered documented concussions. 'It was noncompetitive and unsafe,' head coach Ben Shuffain told the Globe in April. Rohan's parents believed he entered the Thanksgiving game with extra head protection by wearing a shell cover over his helmet that the school had recommended they buy. But the cover wasn't the most protective available, and when the back of Rohan's head crashed to the ground after he made a dazzling defensive play, the shell provided no padding at the point of contact, Shuffain said. Advertisement School officials said in their statement, 'Student health and safety remain the forefront of the district's academic, extracurricular, and athletic initiatives.' Deepika Talukdar exchanges planted kisses with her son, Rohan Shukla, in his makeshift bedroom in the family's dining room. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff Rohan suffered an acute subdural hematoma, a massive brain bleed that with each passing minute reduced his chances of survival. He needed emergency surgery, but vital time was lost, first, because Sharon — unlike many other schools — did not post an ambulance at the Thanksgiving game. Rohan was clinging to life by the time a town ambulance delivered him to Good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton, a lower-level trauma center ill-suited to treat him. He desperately needed an airlift to Massachusetts General Hospital. But MedFlight helicopters were grounded by stormy weather, and Rohan's brain continued bleeding during the wait for a specially equipped ground ambulance. In all, nearly three hours passed between his head hitting the ground and his arrival in an MGH operating room — too long to prevent critical brain damage. Three hours of neurosurgery by Dr. William Butler and his team saved Rohan's life. He then spent four weeks in a coma at MGH before receiving five months of specialized treatment at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, progressing enough that he regained much of his memory and personality. Doctors say it will take years of therapy before they can fully gauge the limits of Rohan's recovery. His mobility remains severely diminished, but his mind is sharp; his sense of humor, too. He returned home after his medical team and parents agreed that he might benefit from living with his family and receiving intensive outpatient therapy. He recently greeted a Globe reporter and photographer by composing a message on his whiteboard in French. Advertisement Why French? He remembers studying it in class. 'I am soon to be a French scholar,' he wrote to the amusement of his parents and guests. But the transition home has proved frightening at times. Rohan has twice experienced prolonged seizures, requiring ambulances to rush him to emergency rooms — first to Good Samaritan, the next time to MGH. When a nurse at Good Samaritan recognized him, she told his parents, 'I'm so happy to see him alive.' His mother winced, recalling their harrowing experience months earlier. Fear has haunted his parents since. One or the other constantly stays close to Rohan. One sleeps in his room, waking every three hours to turn him to prevent muscle soreness. He has a bell to ring for help, and they installed a camera to keep an eye on him. They also built an accessible bathroom and erected a wheelchair ramp to their door. Abhishek Shukla (left) and Deepika Talukdar place leg splints on their 16-year-old son, Rohan Shukla. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff His mother, who left her career as a software engineer to care for him, accompanies him four days a week as he travels for therapy in Waltham. His father, Abhishek Shukla, also a software engineer, commutes to Boston and helps when he can. Caring for Rohan demands so much attention that his parents regret the time they have lost with Naman, such as cheering for him as he travels as a pitcher for a club team, the East Coast Eagles. Yet Rohan has helped to nurture Naman. Even as Rohan yearns to reclaim his prior self — he hungers for a day when he can eat his favorite dish, his mother's chicken tacos — he finds ways to lift Naman. When Naman recently returned home dejected after a subpar pitching performance, he refused to speak to his parents about it. Rohan intervened. He snapped his fingers to grab his brother's attention and wrote on his whiteboard, 'Hey Naman don't beat yourself up.' Rohan Shukla returned home in late May, after his medical team and parents agreed that he might benefit from living with his family and receiving intensive outpatient therapy. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff Rohan's parents said after the Globe's visit, 'Rohan's spirit keeps us optimistic and going. Deep inside, we believe he's eventually going to come out of this resilient and strong and will continue to remind people that nothing is impossible.' Playing football again, though? His mother was shaken by his vision. 'I couldn't stop my tears,' she said. She never wanted him to play in the first place, but he wore her down. He wanted to be a wide receiver, to shine on the gridiron. He remembers the jersey number (81) he wore two years ago on Sharon's freshman/sophomore team, but he had no memory of his varsity number (7) last year until his parents informed him. In fact, he remembers all but nothing of the season that ultimately cost him the life he once knew. His mother asked him if he gets sad sometimes. 'Yes,' he wrote, 'because I cannot get up.' But he loves the sport. And soon, with help from his brother and friends, he will take another step in his recovery by playing a different kind of football, a game free of physical pain. A game called fantasy. Bob Hohler can be reached at