Recovering from a 14-hour life saving back surgery, Malik Fitch felt two things lying in his hospital bed, pain and hopelessness.

With the outside dark and rainy, the Tempe High football player sat up and looked at his mother, Liza Bulerin-Fitch. She can see in his eyes the hurt he was experiencing.

Fitch didn’t care what happened to him anymore, he only wanted the pain to go away. Off balance from his surgery, Fitch began to throw up.

He looked at the mess he created, then looked at his mother and said, “Look at where I am. I’m nothing.”

With the pain no longer bearable, he started to call people on his cellphone.

He called his girlfriend first; she didn’t answer. Next he called his best friend; he didn’t answer. Finally, he called his pastor; he picked up. They started to pray. What happened next is something he will never forget.

“I can’t explain it to this day. People say I’m crazy, people say God isn’t real, but I saw something. I don’t how to describe; it looked like a face. I saw the face come closer and closer. I just closed my eyes and I felt something just grab me and hug me. I felt something hold me. I opened my eyes to the next morning. I just blinked then I woke up and it was morning. I wasn’t in pain anymore,” Fitch said.

When Fitch was in the hospital, he felt like a man who hit rock bottom. But when he left, his spirit was born again and he regained something that he had lost, hope.

“After that night, I really wanted to find out what God was,” Fitch said.

Flashback to the homecoming game of 2016.  Malik FItch was in the zone, ready to get a win for his home crowd and put the team’s winning percentage back to 500. Lined up on the defensive line, he knew what the play was going to be and locked in on the running back. The ball was snapped and Fitch was in pursuit of the running back. During pursuit, Fitch got hammered once to the side by the guard and again in the back by the tackle. They both land on top of him, pancaking him underneath. Fitch, unable to move, received help from the medical team.  He missed the rest of the game.

“I didn’t really think nothing of it. I just felt a little pop in my back,” Fitch said.  “I knew I had scoliosis from prior physicals, but I didn’t think the injury was anything severe.”

Fitch continued to play the game he loves but at a cost. Every game he played made his condition worse and painkillers weren’t helpful. Fitch was afraid to inform his mom of the severity. After a few more agonizing games he couldn’t take it anymore. He finally confessed to his mom about how much pain he was dealing with everyday. The doctors discovered that his scoliosis had gotten worse. At that point, it was time to see a specialist and the rough news came. Malik’s mother struggled with the results of the testing and didn’t tell her son right away.

“It was like being kicked in the stomach,” Liza Bulerin-Fitch said. “It was something I prayed on and it took me about two weeks before I could tell him the news.”

Fitch’s scoliosis needed urgent attention to save his life.

“They told me I needed surgery and that was devastating to hear. I didn’t know how severe the surgery was and they told me if I didn’t get it, I could die,” Fitch said.

This signaled the end of Fitch’s junior year of football. From the sidelines, he watched his team battle in the playoffs. For the next 60 days until the surgery he thought, “what’s going to happen with my life?”

“It was a hard time for me because knowing I'm going to be in a 14-hour surgery, deal with rods in my back, be in intensive care unit for 10 days [22 days in hospital], and knowing I might not play football again, made me cry all the time. I became really depressed,” Fitch said.

Malik Fitch was not afraid on the day of his surgery. He was mentally prepared after reflection for 60 days.

Waking up, everything seemed to be alright, but Fitch realized something was wrong when he looked down at his hand an hour later. The IV in his hand was not pumping the medicine throughout his body instead, it was sitting on top of the cartilage.

“I noticed my hand kept getting bigger, but I could still feel the pain all around my body,” Fitch said.

This was only the first of many obstacles he encountered.

“I had to learn how to walk again,” Fitch said. “Also, I didn’t know how being this tall [6’3”] would cause me to throw up a lot because of my equilibrium being off.”

When he walked he was constantly tripping and dizzy from his loss of balance. Fitch refused to take prescribed medication; he only wanted regular painkillers.

“I like to go as natural as possible. I don’t like to feel drugged up,” Fitch said.

The culmination of all these events weakened his spirit everyday, until it broke during that dark and rainy night.

Flashforward to  today. Malik Fitch finished his senior year of football at Tempe High. He credits God for the person he is and his painless recovery back to football.

“It shaped me a lot as a man because it made me realize you can get through anything with faith and a little bit of hard work. You shouldn’t have to worry about anything because that's all you need. I feel like I owe Him everything,” Fitch said.

He feels the same about his mother. She has been at his side throughout the whole process. Even taking off of work for a month.

“I never left the hospital for those 22 days. I brought my clothes, toothbrush, and I never left his side,” said Liza Bulerin-Fitch.

“My mother means everything to me,” Fitch said. “ That’s my life, that's all my love. She could have quit to make it easy for herself, but instead she worked two jobs and never stopped fighting for us.”

What his mom did for him is what he wants to do for her ten-fold. She goes to every football game, she helps out with fundraising for the team, and she gives her son unconditional love and support. When Fitch starts to make money, he already knows what he is going to spend it on.

“I already told my mother, when I become successful I’m going to buy you a house,” Fitch said.

With his mother on his side and his faith in God, no obstacle is too big for Malik Fitch to tackle.

“Without my mother and God, I always tell people, I don’t know where I will be,” Fitch said.