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Injured Buffalo Bills player Kevin Everett has begun walking in rehab since suffering a paralyzing injury. Everett suffered spinal cord damage in the season-opening game, and has been rehabilitating after he was first unable to move.
"He's making very solid and noticeable progress," says Eric Armstead, an associate. "He's very excited."
The most impressive progressive development Everett has been able to make is maneuvering with his feet while in a wheelchair.
Mama's Faith
Doctors initially feared he might never walk again, but a statement by a team doctor says Everett "continues to make daily improvement in his neurological status."
"Based on our experience, the fact that he's moving so well, so early after such a catastrophic injury means he will walk again," Dr. Barth Green, chairman of the department of neurological surgery at the University of Miami school of medicine, tells Sportinglife.com.
"We may be witnessing a minor miracle," said Dr. Andrew Cappuccino. And Everett's mother, Patricia Dugas, who insists that God has the last say, agrees.
Dugas says the way Everett rebounded from an injury he suffered, during a Sunday game between the Buffalo Bills and Denver Broncos, a week ago is "like a miracle." She says she believes that, eventually, Everett's "going to be fine."
The 25-year-old Everett was hurt making a routine second-half tackle. When he and Domenick Hixon of the Denver Broncos collided, Everett dropped face first to the ground after his helmet hit Hixon high on the left shoulder and side of the helmet.
TV replays show the player twitching for a few seconds as he attempted to get up before falling back to the ground.
A Warrior's Mentality
Doctors say it was Everett's tackle that caused his third vertebra to collapse over the fourh vertebra, which compressed and damaged his spinal cord. When Everett was rushed off the field he could only move his eyes, The Buffalo News reports. He showed no further signs of movement during the next 15 minutes as the Bills medical staff and emergency personnel attended him.
"I had no idea anything was wrong," Hixon tells The Denver Post. "He hit me, and then I was trying to get up myself. I didn't realize, or see or hear anything."
Brian Moorman, the Bills' punter, with tears in his eyes said early Monday afternoon that "it was very hard to see."
"You see the face mask go off, and you know they're taking every precaution, as they would any time the neck or spine is involved. I was waiting for the thumbs up. That's what everybody was waiting for," he said with a cracking voice.
At a news conference a week ago, Cappuccino described Everett as a male NFL athlete with a warrior's mentality. He said Kevin feels "confident in his mind that he is going to maximize his ability to have a good outcome."
