When sophomore cornerback Spence White returned home to Yonkers, N.Y., following his freshman year at Ithaca College, he had no idea he was about to face a life-or-death situation.

White excelled both in the classroom and on the football field as a freshman, but one night in late May had him wondering whether he would ever set foot on the gridiron again.

“I had been having a series of migraine headaches for a while,” White said. “I just kept taking Advil so that they would go away.”

But on May 29, after attending a prom in Seaside, N.J., White had a headache that would not subside. He said the pain was so unbearable that he was forced to make a trip to the emergency room, where he was given a spinal tap after being diagnosed with meningitis.

White was then transferred to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y., where he was re-diagnosed with sinusitis. White was told that he needed surgery to drain the mucus from his nose through his eye. But when White failed to wake up from the surgery after being under anesthesia, there was a bigger problem on hand than just a sinus infection. It was news that left White’s mother, Natalie Hicks, at a loss for words.

“I couldn’t even respond,” Hicks said. “At that point I was done. I was thinking, ‘That’s my only child. What do you mean he’s not waking up?’”

White was in a coma. The doctors did not know what was wrong. But then an MRI of White’s head revealed pus on his skull, which had leaked when draining the mucus from his nose. Hicks was told that her son must undergo brain surgery to have any chance of survival.

“I was in shock,” Hicks said. “It was like I could have been planning a funeral or bringing him home. Anytime you deal with the brain, anything can happen, and being a parent, you fear for the worst.”

Avinash Mohan, a neurological surgeon at Westchester Medical Center, said if White’s condition had gone untreated, it would have been fatal. Mohan also said White’s case was extremely rare and has become part of a case series they are studying.

“He had a very unusual bug,” Mohan said. “He had a very short series of sinus infections. A very small amount of people have that where it progresses to the brain.”

During the surgery, part of White’s skull was removed to drain the excess pus. Luckily, the surgery was a success. But over the course of the summer, White  still faced a long road to recovery. White said he had a lot to do before even getting back on his feet again, let alone stepping back out onto the football field.

“I honestly didn’t think I’d be able to play football again,” White said. “I just thought, ‘Why me out of all people?’ I have always been healthy. It was just a freak accident.”

He spent four days in the intensive care unit and then an additional three days in the hospital before he was released to go home. For the next four weeks, White was confined to his home in Yonkers, where he had to take antibiotics through an IV twice a day for six weeks. It took a total of a month and a half before he was cleared to do any physical activity.

But the peripherally inserted central catheter in White’s arm was not enough to stop his aspirations of running back out onto the football field. About a month before the Bombers were required to report to training camp, White was finally cleared to do physical activity. He said he was nothing short of determined.

“It was rough getting back into shape,” White said. “It took me about five weeks to get into shape, and I still wasn’t myself from last year. But as the season progressed, everything started coming back.”

Mohan, perhaps unaware of the persistence of his patient, thought that White’s future in football was doubtful.

“I thought he would go back to a regular life, but I thought football was very unlikely,” Mohan said.

Remarkably, White has started in all eight of the Bombers’ games this season, recording 45 tackles, matching his 11-game season total from last season. He also has three pass deflections and three interceptions this year.

White became a starter midway through the season as a freshman last year and finished the year ranked fifth on the team in tackles and fourth in pass breakups.

His mother said she expected to see this performance, but not so soon after his recovery.

“I told him not to worry about football,” Hicks said. “But it’s his passion, and he was so determined. I thought he would play again, but I didn’t think he would be going back to start as soon as he did.”

But Hicks said she was proud to see her only child battle his way back to the gridiron. Hicks said she has been her son’s biggest fan from his first days of Pop Warner to his days on the collegiate stage, making the 225-mile trek up north from Yonkers for every Bomber home game. While she has enjoyed every second of her son’s athletic career, Hicks said seeing her son return to the field is now more special than ever before.

“It is even more important to me to see him on the field now,” Hicks said. “It gives me an uplifting [feeling].”