Everett will walk again

[Elano]

Video of the injury: http://channel21news.blogspot.com/2007/09/bills-everett-has-serious-neck-injury.html

Bills tight end Kevin Everett is likely to have "permanent neurological paralysis" and unlikely to walk again after a spinal-cord injury he sustained Sunday.

Dr. Andrew Cappuccino said the injury was "life-threatening" because Everett is susceptible to blood clots, infection and breathing failure.

"A best-case scenario is full recovery, but not likely," Cappuccino said one day after performing a four-hour operation on Everett, 25, who was injured tackling Denver kick returner Domenik Hixon. "[Hopes for a] full neurological recovery [are] bleak, dismal."

Everett is under forced sedation and breathing through a respirator as doctors wait for the swelling to lessen. His family, including his mother, was expected to arrive in Buffalo on Monday.

"We honor ourselves by our work, and we honor Kevin by moving forward and working while never forgetting Kevin and never getting him out of our thoughts and prayers," Bills coach Dick Jauron said.

The Bills also lost two starters: cornerback Jason Webster (broken forearm) and safety Ko Simpson (broken left ankle). Both could miss the rest of the season. Linebacker Coy Wire, starting in place of injured Keith Ellison, has a sprained knee and is out indefinitely.

Jets waiting for MRI: The Jets acknowledged quarterback Chad Pennington has an injured right ankle, but they wouldn't say how badly he is hurt or how long he will be sidelined. "It is the ankle, same as what was announced," coach Eric Mangini said. "We'll review it during the course of the week." Pennington was to have an MRI on Monday.

Russell guaranteed $30 million: Quarterback JaMarcus Russell and Oakland agreed in principle to a six-year contract that will guarantee the No. 1 draft pick out of LSU $30 million, the richest contract ever for a rookie. The final contract needs to be approved by the NFL, but it will be worth at least $60 million. The Lions' guarantee of $27.2 million to No. 2 pick Calvin Johnson was the previous high.

Rams' Pace out for season: St. Louis tackle Orlando Pace, a seven-time Pro Bowl selection, tore the labrum and rotator cuff in his right shoulder against Carolina and will be out the rest of the season. An MRI revealed the damage to Pace, the first overall pick of the 1997 draft. Pace, 31, was placed on injured reserve last November with a torn triceps that knocked him out for the last seven games.. ... Cowboys nose tackle Jason Ferguson is out for the season after tearing his right biceps against the Giants. ... Dolphins safety Yeremiah Bell (torn Achilles') is out for the season. ... Redskins tackle Jon Jansen's right fibula was broken and his ankle dislocated Sunday, his second season-ending injury in four years.

Bears' Brown hurt again: Chicago safety Mike Brown ruptured the ACL in his left knee, his third season-ending injury in four years. Defensive tackle Dusty Dvoracek also seriously hurt his left knee. ... Bruised ribs could limit Bucs running back Carnell Williams again when New Orleans visits Tampa Sunday. ... Jaguars kicker Josh Scobee ( quadriceps) probably won't play Sunday against Atlanta. ... Kansas City signed kicker Dave Rayner and will waive rookie Justin Medlock, who missed a 30-yard field goal in Houston.

[Elano]

Two days after he was paralyzed during a game, and one day after doctors described his condition as potentially life-threatening, Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett was moving his arms and legs Tuesday.

The doctor who performed surgery on Everett, Andrew Cappuccino, said Everett’s condition had “improved.”

Another doctor, who has consulted with Cappuccino, said Tuesday that Everett could eventually walk out of the hospital.

“Kevin Everett is moving his arms and legs, his legs stronger than his arms,” said the consulting doctor, the neurosurgeon Barth Green. “He’s moving them both to a point, to a degree that he will end up walking. He will walk out of the hospital.”

On Monday afternoon, Cappuccino, an orthopedic spinal surgeon, described Everett’s chances of a complete recovery as “unlikely” and between 5 and 10 percent.

The next day, however, Green said he had spoken to Cappuccino and described him as “elated.”

“I think he’s walking on clouds right now,” Green said. “Any physician would be.

“What he told you yesterday is the case 99 percent of the time. That is that people who are paralyzed stay paralyzed.”

On Monday, team doctors said Everett, a 25-year-old backup tight end, was paralyzed from the shoulders down and in life-threatening condition after a collision Sunday during a 15-14 loss to the Denver Broncos.

Everett was injured on the second-half kickoff while attempting what appeared to be a routine tackle of Domenik Hixon. But after striking his helmet on Hixon’s shoulder pads, Everett immediately collapsed. He lay motionless for about 15 minutes.

The Bills’ team physician, Dr. John Marzo, described Everett as conscious and alert on the field but unable to move his extremities. Everett was immobilized using a back board and taken by ambulance to Millard Fillmore Gates Hospital in Buffalo.

During the ride, Cappuccino began lowering Everett’s body temperature to protect his brain, spinal cord and other organs.

At the hospital, Cappuccino operated for four hours Sunday night to repair damage to Everett’s third and fourth cervical vertebrae and spinal cord. Cappuccino said that Everett suffered direct compression of his spinal cord between the C-3 and C-4 vertebrae, but that the spinal cord was not snapped.

Reached by phone Tuesday night, Cappuccino said he was not permitted by the Bills to comment further.

Green is the chairman of neurosurgery at the University of Miami. He is also the president of The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, a foundation he started with the N.F.L. Hall of Fame linebacker Nick Buoniconti, after Buoniconti’s son Marc sustained a spinal cord injury in 1985 while playing football for The Citadel.

Green is also friends with the Bills’ owner, Ralph Wilson, who has helped support The Miami Project.

Green said the fact that Cappuccino lowered Everett’s temperature to 92 degrees immediately after the injury made a difference in his recovery.

The procedure is called moderate hypothermia.

“It’s like a bruising of an arm, an ice pack will help,” Green said. “The vascular system was the ice pack for Everett’s spinal cord.”

Dr. Joseph Torg, professor of orthopedics at Temple University, said Tuesday that it was difficult to make generalizations with spinal cord injuries.

“You want to see improvement in the first 24 to 72 hours if the individual will have a normal recovery,” Torg said. “Every case is unique. You can’t close any doors any way this early.

“The fact he has some spinal cord function is extremely optimistic.”

The Bills did not practice Tuesday, and players were unavailable for comment.

“It’s a dangerous game, and yesterday we saw that and it came right to us,” Bills Coach Dick Jauron said Monday. “It was right in front of us. It was one of our teammates down on the field.”

[Elano]

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/ivp/index?id=3012991

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Damn...Anyone got the video?

[rik]

That's good to hear.

[Lunatic]

That's good to hear.

[Fuck Your Existence]

Damn...Anyone got the video?

i dont but whats crazy is that it didnt look all that harsh...its crazy how your life can get fucked so easy and so fast.

[Elano]

Standards help stem catastrophic injuries from dangerous game

By Jon Saraceno, USA TODAY
When I walk into the carnage of an NFL dressing room after a Sunday of pro football combat, I always marvel at those players who can still function well enough to perform rudimentary tasks, like bending over to slip on their expensive loafers. Or, for that matter, walking to their Hummers and BMWs.

I notice something else, too. It is a poster that warns players. "Remember, see what you hit."

For a split-second during the white-hot heat of the NFL moment, Kevin Everett apparently did not. Today, he fights for his life and, at best, to recover from neurological impairment.

Each week, players are carted off on the pro football meat wagon. Some of the season-ending injuries from Week One include Orlando Pace of St. Louis (torn rotator cuff), Jason Ferguson of Dallas (ripped bicep) and Jon Jansen of Washington (broken fibula, dislocated ankle). Painful and potentially debilitating, no doubt, but those injuries are not permanent.

At least not in a catastrophic sense.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: NFL | National Football League | Buffalo Bills | Andrew Tucker

Today's NFL players are larger and faster than their gladiator-like predecessors, seemingly making them more vulnerable. As the velocity and impact of collisions escalate, I've often wondered why there are not more injuries that leave players paralyzed — or worse. The aftermath of the injury to the Buffalo Bills tight end should leave us pondering the risks our helmeted warriors assume in the name of business and fun.

Everett, 25, sedated and breathing with a respirator, is in intensive care with a severe spinal-cord injury suffered three days ago against Denver. Doctors were more optimistic Tuesday about the chances for full recovery after fearing he might not be able to walk again.

During the last three decades, only three others — Darryl Stingley, Mike Utley and Dennis Byrd — suffered some sort of major permanent paralysis from a game-related accident. (Byrd walks with limited mobility).

"I think that's the real question: Why doesn't it happen all the time?" CBS football analyst Steve Tasker said Tuesday by phone from Buffalo, where the former Bills' special team ace was honored Sunday. Minutes later, Everett was injured while trying to make a tackle.

He lay motionless for minutes as Tasker began to look for tell-tale signs that he was OK, maybe a twitch of a leg or the lifting of a knee. When the Bills convened and knelt in prayer, "I knew then it was bad."

"It's a strange thing," Tasker said. "You see half-a-dozen, maybe 10 hits a game that are violent — really horrific — and most guys hop back up and walk back to the huddle as if nothing happened. All of a sudden, Kevin is laying there and he can't move. If he put his head down a little (too much), maybe it was an inch. When you start talking about that margin of error, where a guy fights for his life, it seems miniscule. That gives me pause about how dangerous the game is."

Unquestionably so. But superior conditioning by elite athletes, an emphasis on appropriate tackling and the enforcement of rules that ban spearing reduce the risk of severe head and neck injury, said Andrew Tucker, president of the NFL Physicians Society.

Everett lowering his head just a little and using the crown of his helmet was enough to leave him susceptible. Forces transmitted from the top of his head to the spine compressed vertebrae and caused disc injury.

"It's like diving off a board in too-shallow water and hitting the top of your head," Tucker said.

For about a decade, the league has posted caution signs regarding proper technique: "Play heads-up football — don't block or tackle with the top of your helmet." It includes an illustration of a player with incorrect form and a circle with a slash through it.

Imagine the cry for reform if the NFL had a season where two or three players, maybe more, were forced to live forever from a wheelchair. It could happen, too. But is there anything the league could really do about it, beyond the current standards and safety measures?

Utley, who should know, doesn't think so. He was paralyzed from the chest down nearly 16 years ago playing guard for the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving Day. Fortunately, he was insured by Lloyd's of London "because I knew what the game was truly about."

To this day, he, too, is astounded that more NFL players are not spinal-cord victims.

"There only have been a handful of us," he said.

"You won't ever see a photograph of me wearing a 'halo' (device) with pins screwed in my head. I never wanted some parent to say, 'Son, you can't play this game because look what happened to Mike Utley.'

"I will not take away from the game that I love and cherish. Is there any way to sugar-coat it? No — it's a violent sport. But they should not change the game of football. The league has a vested interest in us being out there. But the players chose to play."

And assume the risks. For their gain, our pleasure.

[Don Jacob]

this shit is sad.

[R-Tistic]

Good to see he's doing better.

I was thinking about that....a lot of these career and even life-ending football hits don't look as bad. If you just look at this hit, then see Reggie Bush's hit from the Eagles CB last playoffs, and didn't see either of their reactions, you'd KNOW that Bush's hit was a lot worst...but he popped back up after a few seconds, unlike Everett. After reading the story about tackling with the helmet, it does make sense.