It was just after 7 a.m. on an otherwise ordinary Wednesday last March. Mackenzie Curran, a junior who had been named the MVP and top blocker of her varsity volleyball team at Kaneland (Maple Park, Ill.), was getting ready for school when suddenly her world went dark.

At 7:15, her father, Dwight, wondering why Mackenzie was running late, decided to check on her. He was startled to find the 6-foot-tall young athlete — who was also a sprinter, high jumper and hurdler on Kaneland’s track team — lying motionless between her bed and the wall. She was unconscious and had vomit on her shirt. Her leg was cold to the touch, but her father detected a faint snoring sound.

“I thought maybe she’d had a seizure,” says Dwight, who called 911 and then rushed Mackenzie to the hospital, where doctors discovered that she had a genetic condition known as arteriovenous malformation (AVM) — a tangle of abnormal and poorly formed blood vessels — that had ruptured and caused bleeding on the left side of her brain. AVMs can form anywhere in the body, but those in the brain are very rare, occurring in less than 1 percent of the population. In Mackenzie’s case, there were no warning signs, not even headaches.

Her prognosis didn’t look good. Doctors told Dwight and Mackenzie’s mother, Sue, “Your daughter may die today.”

By 9:15 a.m., Mackenize was on the operating table. Neurosurgeon Dr. John Brayton began performing a procedure called craniotomy, in which a bone flap is temporarily removed from the skull to access the brain. During the six-hour surgery, he opened her skull from her left ear to almost the top of her head, then removed the AVM and inserted a sensor to measure pressure buildup  in her brain. When the swelling in Mackenzie’s brain decreased in a matter of hours (it usually takes days), Dr. Brayton proceeded to reattach her skullcap. That night, however, he had to remove her skullcap again to replace a malfunctioning sensor and then induce Mackenzie into a coma to help her body heal.

She remained in the coma for nearly a week and woke to find her family watching anxiously at her bedside. They breathed a collective sigh of relief when Mackenzie immediately recognized her big sis, Emily, 19, a sophomore at Chicago’s North Park University. The right side of her body remained completely paralyzed, but the left edge of Mackenzie’s lips slowly turned upward into a crooked smile and she whispered, “Em.”

Even more encouraging news came a few days later, when Dr. Brayton told the Currans, “I expect a full, dramatic recovery.”

Despite her improvement, Mackenzie faced a long road. The damage to the left side of her brain had caused her to lose both her ability to speak and all mobility on her right side. She had to relearn how to walk and talk, how to hold objects, even how to stick out her tongue. After two weeks, she was transferred to the Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital in Wheaton, 45 minutes from her home, where she spent the next month undergoing physical, occupational and speech therapy while confined to a wheelchair.

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM HER FRIENDS
Mackenzie’s friends and volleyball teammates visited her often during her rehab. They even threw a party at the hospital for her 17th birthday on April 26. Seventeen purple balloons (her fave color) filled her room. They also brought a cake that featured Mackenzie’s longtime mantra: “Stay Solid.”

With the support of her peers and family, “Mac” (as most people call her) continued to push through her often-frustrating therapy sessions — where she worked on relatively simple tasks such as thinking “move left finger” to advanced ones like learning how to walk again using parallel bars — with high spirits. MacKenzie’s volleyball teammate Jessica Lubic wasn’t surprised by her friend’s fast progress.

“She always worked really hard at whatever she did,” says Jessica, now a senior. “While people slacked some days at volleyball, she never took a day off.” As she always had at practice, Mackenzie gave rehabilitation her all.

“When her psychologist said she should go to school ‘half a day, every day,’ Mackenzie said, ‘Four,’ ” says Sue. “She was referring to  Kaneland’s four-block schedule; she wanted to go all day.” MacKenzie was improving so rapidly that, just six months after the incident, her family and doctors agreed that she could return to school in September for the start of her senior year.

At first, Mackenzie took special-education math and English classes, plus speech and reading courses. She also signed up for choir, which provided the perfect setting for sounding out notes and tones. In addition to working with a special-ed aide at school, Mackenzie had Jessica by her side most of the time. Her friend assisted Mackenzie with speech practice, holding sound cards and eating lunch with her every day. Jessica also helped her get around campus with a cane.

BACK IN THE GAME
When the volleyball season began on Aug. 25, Mackenzie couldn’t play but was still very much a part of her team. One of Kaneland’s co-captains, she was in uniform for every game (she occasionally even called “heads” or “tails” during the pregame coin toss) and never missed a practice.

Photo courtesy of Sue Curran Mackenzie Curran was in uniform for every volleyball game this year and even served as captain.

Kaneland’s volleyball coach, Todd Weimer, organized a “Mac Attack Night” fundraiser during the team’s game on Oct. 7 for Mackenzie, whose dad had been unemployed at the time of her stroke (he now has a new job) and whose medical bills were stacking up. That evening, teammates  and friends sold purple T-shirts emblazoned with the words “We ♥ Mackenzie: Tough times don’t last, tough people do” and raised $1,600 for a fund established to help the Currans.

Before the match began, Kaneland’s captains took to the court to arrange a “first kill” for Mackenzie (similar to a first pitch in baseball). They passed the ball to each other and then Jessica set Mackenzie up for a shot. She hit it! The ball touched the top part of the net, then rolled over to the other side. Everyone cheered — no one louder than Mackenzie herself.

“She’s definitely the loudest one on the bench, besides the coach,” says Jessica, who’s also a co-captain. “She sometimes puts your hand over her mouth to make a ‘Woo, woo, woo’ noise. When we get a block, she goes, ‘Oooh!’ We’re working on teaching her cheers like ‘Boom!’ when we get a big kill.”

Beyond rooting like crazy for her team, like any good captain Mackenzie also keeps a sharp eye on the other players.

“One day during practice, one of our younger players was on a box hitting volleyballs and Mac was trying to tell me something,” says Coach Weimer. “I didn’t know what she wanted at first. But once I figured it out, I realized she was trying to tell me that the player was hitting the same spot every time and that she needed to mix it up. It was cool!”

Outside of school, Jessica made sure to invite Mackenzie to volleyball team dinners and other bonding activities. During a team sleepover at Jessica’s house, Mackenzie was having so much fun making pizza and watching a movie that everyone almost forgot what had happened to her.

“It was awesome — just like old times,” Jessica says.

DREAM BIG, MAC
While Mackenzie was making remarkable progress, she still had setbacks — like the two seizures she suffered last fall. She was put on anti-seizure medicine and continued an intense therapy schedule every week. But by January doctors were so impressed with her recovery that they allowed her to swap her cane for a knee brace to help with balance.

It was around that time that doctors also cleared Mackenzie to participate in track and field again, specifically the discus throw and shot put. Her team quickly named the thrilled teen its captain. In mid-February, she competed in her first indoor meet, where she threw the shot put 15 feet. A tearful Sue walked over to Kaneland’s track and field coach, Doug Ecker, and gave him a hug.

“Mackenzie’s just driven; she’s willing to try anything and never complains,” says Coach Ecker.

“I have no doubt that if [her AVM] hadn’t happened, she would have been good enough to be a state qualifier in the high hurdles.”

This June, Mackenzie will walk with her senior class on graduation day, but she will not receive a diploma until next year, after she makes up a few missed classes. Her plan is to attend a community college in the fall of 2012 and eventually enroll in a four-year university in 2013. Mackenzie also hopes to return to volleyball.

Reflecting on the past year, Sue Curran sums up how the family endured the ordeal with one word: unity.

“If it weren’t for sports and that family mentality on a team, she wouldn’t have gotten through this,” she says.

Just a few months ago, Mackenzie would often implore her mom, “How much longer until I can…?” Then the question evolved to more complex tasks, such as “When can I drive?” But what Mackenzie — ever the athlete — dreams about doing most remains simple: “I want to run.”