Who is Maddison McDonald? Texas teen who was brutally beaten by bullies back in hospital, ‘lost feeling’ in right leg

An Autistic Texas girl who was brutally beaten by a group of middle school students is reportedly back in the hospital after losing “feeling and function” in her right leg, journalist Sarah Fields shared on X. Doctors have also found a mass on her brain.

Maddison McDonald, 14, was attacked at her school earlier this year. She was kicked in the head, neck, sides and back, and punched and dragged by her hair as she screamed for help, her mother previously said, according to the Daily Mail.

Maddison, who was diagnosed with ADHD and Autism, was a student at Sul Ross Middle School in San Antonio. The outlet reported that she spent the last school year reporting bullying to her school, but her pleas went unnoticed.

“Now, Maddison is back in the hospital - and her recovery has taken a devastating turn,” Sarah wrote on X . “Her mother reached out to me directly with the update and sent me photographs of Maddison, along with images of her scans. According to her mother, Maddison was simply trying to make her bed when she ended up on the floor, screaming in pain and unable to even get herself onto her knees.”

She added, “Doctors performed scans and MRIs and discovered both a slipped disc and a bulging disc at L4 and L5, which her mother says are causing Maddison’s severe pain and loss of function in her legs. Maddison has regained most of the feeling and function on her left side, but her right leg has still not recovered. She currently cannot safely get around without the assistance of a wheelchair or walker.”

Sarah added that doctors also found a mass on Maddison’s brain that is “approximately the size of a gumball” and is located “on the right side of her temporal lobe.”

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Maddison's mother, Hazel McDonald, previously accused the school of ignoring her daughter even after she repeatedly reported the bullying .

“Every time she has her statement ripped up, she's told she's making it up and to go back to class,” Hazel wrote on a GoFundMe .

“Sadly, on [February 26, 2026], the five girls that had been bullying and threatening Maddi made good on their threats,” she added.

Hazel said that before the attack, she herself went to the school several times, sent multiple emails and contacted the superintendent. The school said after the attack that the issue was swiftly “addressed” but refused to release the surveillance footage of the incident, News 4 San Antonio reported.

“Faculty stood by and did nothing. The same admin that ripped up her reports of being bullied stood over her right after the attack, making her sit in a chair bleeding, terrified and begging for help,” wrote Hazel.

“The humiliation that she had to endure should have never happened...