NFL player suffers "life threatening" injury

[Benevolent One]

Surgeon: Everett has life-threatening spinal-cord injury
Associated Press

Updated: September 10, 2007, 10:17 PM ET

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Kevin Everett sustained a "catastrophic" and life-threatening spinal-cord injury while trying to make a tackle during the Buffalo Bills' season opener and is unlikely to walk again, the surgeon who operated on him said Monday.

"A best-case scenario is full recovery, but not likely," orthopedic surgeon Andrew Cappuccino said. "I believe there will be some permanent neurologic deficit."

Everett was hurt Sunday after he ducked his head while tackling the Denver Broncos' Domenik Hixon during the second-half kickoff. Everett dropped face-first to the ground after his helmet hit Hixon high on the left shoulder and side of the helmet.

Everett likely experienced about two-thirds of a ton of compressive force on his spine in a hit Sunday that left him with a serious spinal injury, according to a professor who has studied the physics of football.

Cappuccino noted the 25-year-old reserve tight end did have touch sensation throughout his body and also showed signs of movement. But he cautioned that Everett's injury was life-threatening because he was still susceptible to blood clots, infection and breathing failure.

A trainer attends to Kevin Everett after he showed no signs of consciousness following a helmet-to-helmet hit on Denver's Domenik Hixon at the start of the second half.

Everett is in the intensive care unit of Buffalo's Millard Fillmore Gates Hospital, where he is under sedation and breathing through a respirator as doctors wait for the swelling to lessen. Cappuccino said it will take up to three days to determine the severity of the injury and the recovery process.

Cappuccino repaired a break between the third and fourth vertebrae and also alleviated the pressure on the spinal cord. In reconstructing his spine, doctors made a bone graft and inserted a plate, held in by four screws, and also inserted two small rods, held in place by another four screws.

Doctors, however, weren't able to repair all the damage.

Bills punter Brian Moorman immediately feared the worst when Everett showed no signs of movement as he was placed on a backboard and, with his head and body immobilized, carefully loaded into an ambulance.

"It brought tears to my eyes," Moorman said after practice. He said the sight of Everett's motionless body brought back memories of Mike Utley, the former Detroit Lions guard, who was paralyzed below the chest after injuring his neck in a collision during a 1991 game.

Utley, Moorman recalled, at least was able to give what's become a famous "thumbs up" sign as he was taken off the field. Everett didn't.

"That's what I was waiting for, and that's what everybody else was waiting for," Moorman said. "And to have to walk back to the sideline and not see that made for a tough time."

Utley, who lives in Washington state, was saddened to see replays of Everett's collision.

"I'm sorry this young man got hurt," Utley told The AP. "It wasn't a cheap shot. It was a great form tackle and that's it."

Cappuccino said Everett was alert and aware of the extent of his injuries.

"I told Kevin that the chances for a full neurologic recovery were bleak, dismal," said Cappuccino, who works for the Bills as a consultant, specializing in spinal surgery. "I was honest with him, and he told me, 'Do everything you can to help me.' "

Cappuccino received permission to operate from Everett's mother, Patricia Dugas, who spoke by phone from her home in Houston. She and other family members arrived in Buffalo on Monday. Everett was born in Port Arthur, Texas, and played high school football there.

Buffalo's 2005 third-round draft pick out of Miami, Everett missed his rookie season because of a knee injury. He spent most of last year playing special teams. He was hoping to make an impact as a receiver.

The Bills now attempt to refocus while preparing to play at Pittsburgh on Sunday.

"It's difficult because you know the situation," said running back Anthony Thomas, one of Everett's best friends on the team. "We have to move on. But he'll always be in our thoughts and in our prayers."

Quarterback J.P. Losman said it was difficult to concentrate during practice.

"It seems like every couple of seconds that go by it's always popping into your head," Losman said. "Going through a walk-through, we're looking for him, wanting to hear his voice."

Coach Dick Jauron said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell called him Sunday evening, offering the league's support.

 

[Benevolent One]

Former coaches, administrators remember player

Quiet Everett called 'coach's dream'
By Ken Daley
Special to ESPN.com

Former Kilgore College football coach Jimmy Rieves was shocked Sunday when a previous staff assistant called to tell him their former star tight end, Kevin Everett, had been seriously injured making a tackle in Buffalo's opener against Denver.

But when Rieves finally got to see the play Monday morning on ESPN, the shock of the news gave way to a sickening memory.

"I was at the University of Mississippi in 1989 as a graduate assistant when Chucky Mullins was injured," Rieves said Monday. "It just brought back the same images to my mind, because the way they fell was basically the spitting image of each other."

Mullins, an Ole Miss defensive back, broke up a pass on Oct. 28, 1989, with a hard hit against Vanderbilt running back Brad Gaines, who outweighed Mullins by 55 pounds. The violent collision shattered four vertebrae in Mullins' neck, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down.

Mullins returned to school 15 months later, but recurring respiratory complications from the injury took their toll. He collapsed May 1, 1991, from a blood clot in his lungs and died five days later. He was 21.

Kevin Everett's junior college coach, Jimmy Rieves, says the "best was still to come" for the Buffalo tight end.

Everett, a 25-year-old reserve tight end for the Bills, suffered a similarly catastrophic injury Sunday when he tackled the Broncos' Domenik Hixon with a helmet-to-helmet hit on the kickoff starting the second half of Buffalo's 15-14 loss. At a somber news conference Monday in Buffalo, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Andrew Cappuccino said Everett was under heavy sedation in the intensive care unit of Millard Fillmore Gates Circle Hospital with an injury that remains life-threatening. Even if Everett survives, the surgeon described the chances he'll regain use of his limbs as "dismal."

"I'm born to be an optimist," Cappuccino said, "but as a clinician and a scientist, I never lie to my patients. Kevin is a patient of mine right now, and I told Kevin that the chances for a full neurologic recovery were bleak & I believe there will be some permanent neurological paralysis."

The severity of Everett's injury stunned teammates, friends and fans across the nation, from his southern Texas home of Port Arthur to the tiny eastern Texas campus of Kilgore College to the University of Miami, where the Bills found Everett with their third-round pick of the 2005 draft.

"It's just a great tragedy," said Leah Gorman, coordinator of student activities at Kilgore College, where Everett played from 2001 to '03. "We're just really sad here today when we all gathered together to talk about it. & We were very excited when he went on to Miami and when he got drafted. He's just a good person. I can't say that enough."

Everett missed his 2005 rookie NFL season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during his first day of minicamp. He worked hard to come back from that injury, appeared in 16 games as a special-teams specialist in 2006, and was poised to make a bigger impact as a receiver for the Bills this season.

"Our thoughts are with Kevin and his family as we move forward," Bills coach Dick Jauron said. "And we will move forward, because it's what we do. And Kevin certainly understands that. And it's what Kevin chooses to do, too."

North Carolina coach Butch Davis, who recruited Everett to Miami for the player's junior and senior seasons, said: "It's sad. He was really just a terrific young man. He's a kid who's fought really, really hard to get back to where he was, because he suffered a really severe knee injury.

"Buffalo, like they did in the case of [running back] Willis McGahee, took a real chance on a kid who was a gifted athlete, a good kid that had to rebound from a knee surgery. Willis, obviously, came back and had a great career after his knee surgery. And I think Kevin would have probably done the same thing."

After an all-state career for Port Arthur's now-defunct Thomas Jefferson High School (which also spawned singer Janis Joplin and football coach Jimmy Johnson), Everett was recruited to Miami by Davis but failed to qualify academically. So he put in two years at Kilgore, where he became a two-time All-Southwest Junior College first-team selection and made the grades necessary to transfer to Miami as a junior.

"He was a good person, very quiet, and very serious about his education," said Rieves, who resigned as coach after last season to become a Kilgore administrator. "He wanted to hurry and get to Miami, and he took care of business off the field. He didn't party, didn't do any of those kinds of things, and never got in trouble, which is unusual at a junior college. He was very serious.

"It's really weird -- as good a football player as he was, I don't have a lot more stories about him. But that just shows the kind of character he had. He didn't bring attention to himself. When he scored touchdowns, he didn't spike the ball or run around. He'd hand the ball to the referee and turn around and jog back to the sidelines. He was just very unassuming."

Jude DuBois, the Kilgore learning specialist who worked closely with Everett on his academic requirements, remembers Everett as a "very focused, very driven young man" determined to achieve his goals of playing for the Hurricanes and eventually in the NFL.

"I think, deep down, he achieved what he wanted to achieve, and that was playing professional football," DuBois said. "He wasn't a man of many words, but he was always very polite and just an all-around great young man. He always seemed to be in top form. I know there are injuries that come with football, but when it's someone that you know personally and have worked with, that's when it's a shocker."

Everett's injury is the second recent NFL-related blow to the Kilgore community. DuBois also worked at Kilgore helping tutor Thomas Herrion, the offensive lineman who went on to the University of Utah and the San Francisco 49ers. Herrion died at age 23 of heart failure following a 2005 exhibition game.

Davis, who finally got to have Everett backing up Kellen Winslow Jr. in the 2003 and '04 seasons, said Everett's star potential was obvious as a high school standout with size (6-4, 240 pounds) and speed.

"He was a really terrific athlete in high school," Davis said. "He was a 4.6 guy [in the 40-yard dash] that you knew was probably going to be kind of a quasi-Jeremy Shockey or Bubba Franks type of guy. He's had kind of an injury-plagued career, but prayers certainly go out to him and his family."

Rieves recalled a play during Everett's sophomore season at Kilgore that best illustrated the player's determination.

"We were playing Navarro Junior College in Corsicana," Rieves said, "and he caught a pass on the 15-yard line and broke about five tackles and dragged three guys into the end zone with him to score a touchdown and help us win the game. He wasn't a rah-rah type of guy. He just basically took care of his business and was a good role model because he never got in trouble.

"He took it as a job and he performed that way. Anytime you have a young man that has his head screwed on straight and doesn't cause you any problems, he's a coach's dream."

Those who knew Everett in his college years credited his mother, Patricia Dugas, with having raised a polite, responsible young man in her single-parent home.

In a 2003 interview with a Miami Hurricanes fan Web site (www.canestime.com), Everett described himself as "just a low-key guy."

"I've been like that my whole life," he said. "My mom always taught me to be like that. She told me if I am going to do stuff, then just do it by yourself. You can't get into any trouble like that."

That singular view toward success, Rieves said, almost certainly would have paid dividends for the Bills this year, with Everett finally healthy heading into the season.

"I think the best was still to come," Rieves said. "Kevin would grow into a place and grow into a position and a scheme. And I believe he was just about to start hitting his stride when this happened."

 

[TexasRaceLady]

My prayers go out to this fine young man, and his family.

It just didn't look that bad of a hit.

 

[Benevolent One]

My prayers go out to this fine young man, and his family.

It just didn't look that bad of a hit.

You know TRL, I was thinking the same thing when I saw it. I guess it came down to it being just the right angle to just about destroy his neck. The scary thing is, I used to play an awful lot of football and that is pretty much how I was taught to hit people. I always tried to drive my shoulder through their belt buckle. Of course it is hard to aim very well when you are both running and he is trying to avoid being hit at all.

In some ways, this reminds me of Dale's accident. It didn't look nearly as bad as a lot of other accidents, but it was certainly fatal. It's just a pretty scary thing how fragile life and health are.

 

[Benevolent One]

a surprising update

This is a very cool turn of events


Updated: September 11, 2007, 8:11 PM ET

Kevin Everett might walk again after all.

The doctor who performed the spinal surgery on Everett told Buffalo TV station WIVB on Tuesday that Everett has voluntary movement of his arms and legs and as a result he is optimistic that Everett will walk again.

Dr. Andrew Cappuccino told WIVB that Everett's sedation levels were lowered on Tuesday, allowing him to respond to verbal commands. WIVB also reported that Everett's latest MRI shows only a small amount of swelling on his spinal cord.

Dr. Barth Green, chairman of the department of neurological surgery at the University of Miami school of medicine, agrees with the prognosis.

"Based on our experience, the fact that he's moving so well, so early after such a catastrophic injury means he will walk again," Green told The Associated Press by telephone from Miami.

"It's totally spectacular, totally unexpected," Green said.

Green said he's been consulting with doctors in Buffalo since Everett sustained a life-threatening spinal cord injury Sunday after ducking his head while tackling the Denver Broncos' Domenik Hixon during the second-half kickoff of the Bills' season opener.

Asked whether Everett will have a chance to fully recover, Green said: "It's feasible, but it's not 100 percent predictable at this time. ... But it's feasible he could lead a normal life."

"I don't know if I would call it a miracle. I would call it a spectacular example of what people can do," Green said. "To me, it's like putting the first man on the moon or splitting the atom. We've shown that if the right treatment is given to people who have a catastrophic injury that they could walk away from it."

Green said the key was the quick action taken by Cappuccino to run an ice-cold saline solution through Everett's system that put the player in a hypothermic state. Doctors at the Miami Project have demonstrated in their laboratories that such action significantly decreases the damage to the spinal cord due to swelling and movement.

"We've been doing a protocol on humans and having similar experiences for many months now," Green said. "But this is the first time I'm aware of that the doctor was with the patient when he was injured and the hypothermia was started within minutes of the injury. We know the earlier it's started, the better."

Everett remains in intensive care and will be slowly taken off sedation and have his body temperature warmed over the next day, Green said. Doctors will also take the player off a respirator.

"It's an amazing group of circumstances. It's a home run. It's a touchdown," Green said.

 

[tkj24]

My thoughts and prayers are with this young man and his family. Hoping a miracle will happen and he is able to walk again and then has enough sense not to put on a helmet ever again.

 

[Ward Burton]

It's definitely a horrible situation. It's the risk in NFL when those kind of tackles are made, helmet to helmet.

 

[Benevolent One]

My thoughts and prayers are with this young man and his family. Hoping a miracle will happen and he is able to walk again and then has enough sense not to put on a helmet ever again.

I'm sure he would never be medically cleared to play football again even if he wants to. Neck injuries have shortened many careers in the NFL. Guys like Chris Speilman, Andy Katzenmoyer and others were told that if they took another good hit to their neck that they could be paralyzed as a result. Even if they chose to take that risk, the league would never allow it. There is way too much liability involved in allowing someone with a documented risk like this to play.

His career is certainly over, but it looks like his life is just beginning and he will have reasonably good health to enjoy it with.

 

[kat2220]

His career is certainly over, but it looks like his life is just beginning and he will have reasonably good health to enjoy it with.

My thoughts and prayers are with this young man.