DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Kevin Everett, Bills Could Walk Soon - Amazing Story

Everett could walk soon; moving to Houston Friday
BUFFALO (AP) — Injured Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett will be transferred Friday morning to a Houston hospital to begin the next phase of his rehabilitation, less than two weeks after he sustained a life-threatening spinal cord injury.

And doctors said Thursday they believe he will be walking within weeks — perhaps sooner.

"Soon ... they're going to stand him up," Dr. Barth Green told the Associated Press, shortly after discussing Everett's condition with Bills orthopedic surgeon Dr. Andrew Cappuccino. "They're very confident he'll be walking very soon ... in the next days or weeks, not months."

Eric Armstead, a partner of Everett's agent Brian Overstreet, said Everett was going to Houston's Memorial Hermann Hospital and would be traveling by private plane.

"I talked to him today, and he's very excited," Armstead said.

The prognosis is remarkable after Everett arrived at Millard Fillmore Gates Hospital paralyzed from the neck down after being hurt while making a tackle in Buffalo's season opener against Denver on Sept. 9. Doctors initially expressed fears Everett would never walk again.

Green is chairman of the neurological surgery department at the University of Miami school of medicine and has received regular updates from Everett's doctors on the player's progress.

"Now that doesn't mean he'll be walking normally, but standing up and holding his own weight," Green said. "I think the future for him is very bright."

"He's strong, you all, I'm telling you he's strong," Everett's mother, Patricia Dugas said. "Kevin's going to get up walking and take care of his business like he always has. I don't think life is going to change that much."

Bills spokesman Scott Berchtold said the team had no update on Everett's status.

Everett makes his offseason home in Houston, where many of his family members and friends live.

Green suggested Houston would be the best place to move Everett because it's important for the player to have his family and friends nearby.

"I love the Buffalo people, and I'll hate to leave them," Dugas said. "But it'll be good that we can be closer to home for all our family to come over and see him because they're worried about him. ... He wants to see his family, too."

Dugas has been at her son's bedside since a day after he was hurt.

"He never asked why. He has a positive outlook about all of this," she said. "Sometimes I walk around here saying, 'I can't believe he's smiling like that. ... That's what he give me, peace. He keeps me strong."

Everett was strong enough to sit up on his own in his hospital bed this week.

NFL Players Association executive director Gene Upshaw and NFLPA president Troy Vincent, a former teammate of Everett's in Buffalo, were scheduled to visit the player Thursday.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/bills/2007-09-20-everett-update_N.htm

Come to Houston - I'll work ya out

Good story to hear... though I still wish the docs wouldn't have said anything right off the bat about him not walking... way too early to know... you have to wait for the inital spinal shock to wear off and see what you have going...

I've had a few kids that have similar stories... one in particular couldn't move a thing for a week or so and then we slowly started to get some toe movement and it just took off... he took his first steps I think two months later (with a ton of help and a machine holding him up but still steps)... the kid wanted to go back to football but no doc will clear him. So he is becoming an athletic trainer... only symptoms he still has is his writing is really ugly because he has some trouble holding a pencil and he gets headaches every once in awhile.

So go get them Kevin... your in store for a rehab process that will be harder than anything you've ever done in football but you can make it!

I wish him the best.

That is great news!!!!!!!!

Really really great news......

nordawg

God bless him, his family, and those involved with his rehab...

I love this news!! I'm so happy for him and his family.

Excellent news.

Bills' Everett arrives in Houston for next step in rehab
By David Phillip, The Associated Press
HOUSTON — Kevin Everett was transferred Friday to a Houston hospital to begin the next phase of his rehabilitation, less than two weeks after the Buffalo Bills tight end sustained a life-threatening spinal cord injury.

The ambulance that took Everett to Houston's Memorial Hermann Hospital was followed by a town car with two women inside, both wearing Everett jerseys. The women got out and watched as he was wheeled into the medical center.

Everett left Buffalo earlier Friday in a private plane. He was joined by his mother, Patricia Dugas, and taken to the hospital's Institute for Rehabilitation and Research. Dugas, wearing a white Bills jersey, declined to talk with reporters.

Everett spent two weeks at Buffalo's Millard Fillmore Gates Hospital paralyzed from the neck down. He was hurt making a tackle in the Bills' season opener against Denver on Sept. 9.

Initially fearing he would never walk again, doctors have since significantly upgraded their prognosis and plan to have Everett try to stand on his own in the next few days.

Dr. Barth Green, chairman of the neurological surgery department at the University of Miami school of medicine, said doctors are confident Everett could be walking within weeks if not sooner.

"They're very confident he'll be walking very soon ... in the next days or weeks, not months," Green told The Associated Press on Thursday shortly after discussing Everett's condition with Bills orthopedic surgeon Dr. Andrew Cappuccino. "I think the future for him is very bright."

Green, co-founder of the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, has been in constant contact with Everett's doctors.

And it was Green, who suggested Everett continue his rehabilitation in Houston, where he makes his offseason home, saying it's important for him to have his family and friends nearby.

"I love the Buffalo people, and I'll hate to leave them," Everett's mother said Thursday. "But it'll be good that we can be closer to home for all our family to come over and see him because they're worried about him. ... He wants to see his family, too."

NFL Players Association executive director Gene Upshaw and NFLPA president Troy Vincent, a former teammate of Everett's in Buffalo, visited him Thursday.

"It was good to see Kevin making progress," Vincent said, in an e-mail to The AP.

Contributing: AP reporters John Wawrow in Buffalo and Juan A. Lozano in Houston
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/bills/2007-09-21-everett-houston_N.htm

This is fantastic news....here's to a full recovery.

It's amazing how the prognosis keeps getting better and better.

I'm really happy that this story ended up positive for Kevin Everett, and wish him a full recovery.

With that said, I assume a TV production assistant wasn't real happy with the sports anchor, played a prank, and let this one hit the news. For what it's worth, I laughed out loud.

I was heading in here to post that very video.....Funniest thing EVER!!!

I laugh everytime I watch it.

HACK

I was going to post it too, did you see it at Barstool? So funny, no matter how many times you watch it.