Crash critically injures former OHS student

A teenager is fighting for his life after a head-on crash in Dodge County Nov. 29.
Tyler Maas-Schile, 18, is in critical condition at St. Marys Hospital in Rochester. He was airlifted to St. Marys by North Memorial Air Care after being extricated from his vehicle that crashed into a pick-up truck on 250th Avenue (County Road 13) at 685th Street in Canisteo Township near Hayfield.
Maas-Schile had been a student at Owatonna High School, but was set to transfer to Kasson-Mantorville High School on Dec. 1, according to OHS Principal Kory Kath. While at Owatonna, Maas-Schile was on the trap shooting team for two years, Kath said.
According to a GoFundMe account that has been set up to help Maas-Schile’s family with medical expenses, he suffered multiple injuries, including a broken leg, arm and ankle, dislocated hip, broken upper jaw, skull fracture with a brain bleed and his neck is broken at the base of the skull. The family said he has been unresponsive to certain stimulus and his body has put itself in a coma.
In a GoFundMe posting on Monday, Lillian Katzung, Maas-Schile’s mother, wrote doctors have been trying to stabilize his brain pressure as well as blood pressure, which spiked to 200 Sunday. A CT scan revealed that there is a huge bruise on the left side of the brain to go along with the trauma on the right side, Katzung wrote. He now will need craniectomy surgery, which is a neurosurgical procedure that involves removing a portion of the skull in order to relieve pressure.
“If this procedure was not done, the pressure in his brain would have killed him,” Katzung said, adding the family doesn’t know what Maas-Schile’s prognosis will be even with the surgery.
Katzung said her son could come back and be as close to normal or he could have neurological problems where he would need constant care. “We really don’t know until some of this starts to heal and removing the pressure will hopefully help,” she said. 
“This has changed Tyler’s life, my life and the life of all of our family and friends forever,” Katzung wrote. “So please, do not drive distracted for any reason, don’t text and drive, don’t drive tired, don’t drive under the influence. Call someone if you need to because it is much better than getting a knock on the door from an officer saying your loved one is being flown to the hospital with life threatening injuries.”
Katzung added, “You need to realize that you are not invincible and that you are loved by so many more people than you’ll ever realize.”
Friends set up a GoFundMe account seeking a goal of $10,000. As of late Monday, $3,165 had been raised.
Meanwhile, the State Patrol is assisting the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office with the crash investigation.
Two other people in the crash were injured. They included Ardean Bjornson, 80, of Hayfield, who drove the pick-up, with minor injuries and his passenger, Kevin Bjornson, who suffered serious injuries. Both were transported by ground ambulance to St. Mary’s.
Initial reports indicated Bjornson was traveling southbound on 250th Avenue and pulled onto the shoulder when Maas-Schile, who was going northbound, collided head-on, Sheriff Scott Rose said.