For Brain Injured Boxer Prichard Colón, a Fight That Never Ends

Prichard Colón

(Washington Post) – They guide him down the hall and through a doorway, angling his wheelchair away from the calendar.

Once the room is quiet, the lighting lowered to a comfortable shade, a flat-screen monitor is attached to his wheelchair. He listens to the first question, the first of many, and stares at a screen with many tabs. He locates one, and a red circle slowly fills.

“My name is Prichard Colón,” a robotic voice says. Another question follows. Then another.

“I was a professional boxer from Puerto Rico.”

The women on either side of him are smiling. So is Prichard. But now the exercise gets tricky. How old are you? His dark eyebrows furrow, and the circle fills.

“I am 26 years old,” the voice says, and this means that he’s having a good day, that he might truly be getting better more than three years after that night outside Washington, D.C. The next question will confirm those hopes or inflame persistent fears. CONTINUE