The Rough Road

Katie Carrera (thanks, Leah): Before visitors walk into Stephen Murray's room at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center to see the injured bicycle motocross (BMX) rider, his family tries to give them an idea of what they'll find.

But there isn't any truly effective preparation for them to see the typically energetic and charismatic 27-year-old who is now unable to speak or move below his shoulders. So they tell everyone about the alcove adjacent to Murray's room, or as his mother Cynthia Edgworth calls it, Heartbreak Hotel.

It's a vacancy no one wants to fill, but all of them have. A place where even the toughest, most-grizzled action sports athletes seek refuge so they don't break down in front of their friend.

"Somebody will come see Stephen for the first time and you get in there and you realize what's really going on," said Paul Roberts, Murray's best friend and a well-known BMX announcer. "It's very hard to do and it's a natural reaction. You can't prepare yourself."