Update on Kevin Everett

Kevin Everett is the Buffalo Bills tight end who suffered a spinal cord injury in early September.

Earlier Doctors indicated that he would walk again.

Today's update is that he is 'showing great movement in his legs':

Excerpt:

Kevin Everett has developed enough strength to hold himself up briefly on a walker, and he can also use his feet to push himself around in a wheelchair, the latest signs of progress as the Buffalo Bills' tight end recovers from a severe spinal cord injury.

...
"He can go from point A to B on his feet in a wheelchair. He can go as far as he wants to go," Armstead said, noting he's watched Everett wheel himself to the elevator and head outside. "He's showing great movement in his legs."

Everett was hurt making a tackle in the Bills' season opener against Denver on Sept. 9. He arrived at Buffalo's Millard Fillmore Hospital paralyzed from the neck down, and doctors initially feared he'd never walk again.

The prognosis changed a few days later when Everett began showing voluntary movement first in his legs and then his hands.

Armstead said Everett is now able to open and close both hands, another significant step after he showed only slight movement in his fingers while spending the first two weeks of his recovery in Buffalo.

Comment: Of interest to me because his injury is 20 years (to the week) after my spinal injury. So I am watching his progress! With excitement!

All Kevin Everett CFG posts

Doctor Says Bills’ Everett Will Walk Again

Doctor Says Bills’ Everett Will Walk Again



Sports / Pro Football
Doctor Says Bills’ Everett Will Walk Again
By MATT HIGGINS
Published: September 12, 2007
One day after doctors described his condition as potentially life-threatening, Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett was moving his arms and legs Tuesday.

Excerpt:

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.”

Comment: Encouraging news.

In my prayers

Everett's injury 'catastrophic' - Doctor: Paralysis likely for Bills TE after spinal surgery



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.

Comment: This is close to the injury I had 20 years ago (Labor Day 1987). My injury was at C4-C5. I thank God that I can walk.

Happenings: Kathee very tired as she was up until 1 a.m. working a system issue. She is filling out rebate paperwork for the Apple Nano and HP Printer. I am exploring the MacBook. Tonight's reading was I Chronicles 21 & 22. I got my Fastmail account set up with the Apple mail client (using IMAP). Also I imported my address book into the Apple address book. I figured out Cut and Paste. I ordered 2 OS X Tiger books from Amazon and hope to in time to take on vacation.

New meaning to college "senior"!

Flynt, 59, making comeback with Sul Ross State University

Excerpt:

ALPINE, Texas -- Mike Flynt was drinking beer and swapping stories with some old football buddies a few months ago when he brought up the biggest regret of his life: getting kicked off the college team before his senior year.

So, one of his pals said, why not do something about it?

Most 59-year-olds would have laughed. Flynt's only concern was if he was eligible.

Finding out he was, Flynt returned to Sul Ross State this month, 37 years after he left and six years before he goes on Medicare. His comeback peaked Wednesday with the coach saying he's made the Division III team's roster. He could be in action as soon as Sept. 1.

Flynt is giving new meaning to being a college senior. After all, he's a grandfather and a card-carrying member of AARP. He's eight years older than his coach and has two kids older than any of his teammates.


Comments: Young guys like me admire old guys like Mike Flynt! Sul Ross State University. Image from AP / Yahoo.

125 years of dreadful existence

Milestone Marks What Phillies Fans Already Knew

Sports / Baseball
Milestone Marks What Phillies Fans Already Knew
By JERÉ LONGMAN
Published: June 12, 2007
The Philadelphia Phillies have lost more games than any professional franchise in any sport and are fast approaching their 10,000th loss.

Comment: Kathee and I were at "The Vet" when the Phillies won the pennant in 1983!

Excerpt:

The franchise has set awful records for futility — with a collective earned run average of 6.71 in 1930 and 23 consecutive defeats in 1961. And, of course, 1964 brought one of baseball’s most infamous collapses, when the Phillies held a 6 ½-game lead in the National League with 12 games to play and blew the pennant after losing 10 in a row.

“It was like someone sticking a nail in your head and hammering it once a day,” said Tom McCarthy, 70, an actor who plays the title role in the one-man play “The Philly Fan.”

Penurious and indifferent owners, poor trades, suspect managers and some truly bad teams have conspired through decades to influence Philadelphia’s gloomy faith. Here, victory is fleeting and ephemeral, not an encouraging sign that further success is ahead but a taunting hint that disaster is just around the corner in a city where defeat has become the natural order.


See: His nickname was 'Losing Pitcher'. His Career Stats

Taking irresponsibility

Hancock's father files suit

Excerpt:

The father of Josh Hancock filed suit Thursday, claiming a restaurant provided drinks to the St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher even though he was intoxicated prior to the crash that killed him.

The suit, filed in St. Louis Circuit Court by Dean Hancock of Tupelo, Miss., does not specify damages. Mike Shannon's Restaurant, owned by the longtime Cardinals broadcaster who starred on three World Series teams in the 1960s, is a defendant in the case along with Shannon's daughter, Patricia Shannon Van Matre, the restaurant manager.

Other defendants include Eddie's Towing, the company whose flatbed tow truck was struck by Hancock's sport utility vehicle in the early hours of April 29; tow truck driver Jacob Edward Hargrove; and Justin Tolar, the driver whose stalled car on Interstate 64 was being assisted by Hargrove.

Comment: The death of any young man is a tragedy, more so in the case of Cardinals' pitcher Josh Hancock who drank himself to twice the legal level of intoxication, then sped down the freeway crashing into a tow truck on the side of the road. In sum: intoxicated, DUI, speeding, no seat belt, and talking on the cell phone. The grieving Father turns the tragedy into a pitiful melodrama of blame! See earlier post.

Al Unser Jr. on his battles with alcohol

200 Miles an Hour All the Time

Excerpt:

I had been in and out of drinking, and any time I was drinking, bad things happened, and when I wasn't drinking, good things happened. And so, why? I had had my stretch, after learning about the disease, and still trying to figure out another way around the corner, and it wasn't working, and so I dug deep inside and said, I'm an alcoholic. I cannot pick up one drink.

Comment: Good read! He has been 116 days without an alcoholic drink!

4th and long ... fans headed for the exits

Vikings: It's 4th down for stadium funding

Excerpt:

The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, seeking public approval and financial assistance for a new Vikings stadium on the site of the Metrodome, will make a last-gasp presentation Friday morning before the House Taxes Committee at the Capitol. With the 2007 Legislative session expected to end this weekend, the Vikings and the commission are realistically positioning themselves for next year.

An urban planner hired by the commission to devise a blueprint to renovate the downtown-east section of Minneapolis, has come up with a plan for a $954 million stadium with a retractable roof.

In a recent interview with the Star Tribune, Vikings owner Zygi Wilf said the team would be willing to pay for about one-third the stadium cost, minus the cost of the roof. That would put the Vikings' contribution for a stadium at around $250 million, but leaving nearly a $750 million gap. The roof is expected to cost about $200 million.

Comment: I posted on this earlier. As a taxpayer, I do not want to pay for a stadium with higher sales taxes (or any other taxes).

Life cut short

Cardinals Pitcher Killed in Crash Was Drunk

Sports / Baseball
Cardinals Pitcher Killed in Crash Was Drunk
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 5, 2007
St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock was drunk at the time of his fatal accident, and marijuana was found in the sport utility vehicle he was driving, according to police.

Comment: Obviously this is a high profile case, but the tragedy of drunken driving vehicle fatalities repeats itself daily.