On Sept. 9, Buffalo Bills third year tight end Kevin Everett suffered a neck injury that left him unmoving on the football field during the season opening game against the Denver Broncos. The onsite medics carried him off the field and he was taken by ambulance to Millard Fillmore Gates Hospital.

The injury appeared to be a freak accident while he went head to head with Domenik Hixon, wide receiver from Denver. Everett has stayed at Gates Hospital since his injury but they plan to move him over the weekend to Houston if his progress continues.

These types of injuries are always painful, sad and scary, and unfortunately they are too common. Although only 9 percent of accidents of this type occur in sports, when they do it sheds some serious spotlight on the issue.

After talking to Raj Rao, MD, professor, and director of spinal surgery in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin, I was informed just how these injuries happen.

When someone receives trauma to the neck or spine, the spinal chord can go into something called spinal shock where it simply shuts down. If this occurs it doesn’t necessarily mean that the spine has received any direct blows, just that it freezes up.

The next 24 to 48 hours are crucial in determining exactly how severe the injury is going to be. After that, if the patient still has not shown improvement, the odds of walking again worsen dramatically.

Luckily Everett has shown vast improvement and is moving quickly along to the next phase of his rehabilitation. Not so much the case for everyone though, as we have seen with Superman.

These injuries are most common during the early months of summer, when everyone starts to go swimming and does second story house work. Fortunately, many of these accidents can be prevented by taking appropriate safety precautions, such as verifying the depth of water before diving.

Too often, people jump into a murky lake, not realizing that the bottom is only three feet down. Most times these accidents are out of the injured person’s control…but sometimes they aren’t, so be careful and know your surroundings.

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