Adna's David Young returns a kickoff past midfield during Central 2B League football action between Wahkiakum and Adna on Friday, Sept. 18, 2015 in Adna.
Adna High School’s David Young is in satisfactory condition at Harborview Medical Center after suffering a neck injury during a football game on Friday night.
Young, playing linebacker, made a tackle during Adna’s Central 2B League game in Napavine, suffering two broken vertebrae in the process. He has been outfitted with a halo neck support apparatus and, according to his mother, Linda Young, could make a full recovery in six months.
Young’s C1 and C2 vertebrae are broken, and an artery in the back of his neck was damaged on Friday night, Linda Young said. He does not, however, have paralysis.
“He got hit so hard, it broke off a chip of part of his vertebra and punctured one of his arteries,” she said. “Now that artery is gone. So that’s why they have the halo on, trying to stretch him up to put the vertebra back together as much as they can.”
With just one main artery, she said, performing surgery is now too much of a risk.
The halo is scheduled to be on for three months, after which he’ll be outfitted with a neck brace for three more months.
“They’re saying if everything goes good, six months, full recovery,” she said.
How long Young will remain in Harborview has yet to be determined. He’s scheduled to begin working with physical therapists today.
“They want him to get up, and get used to having this huge thing that’s attached to your skull,” she said. “It’ll go day by day.”
The injury occurred on Adna’s first defensive play of the game.
Young said she saw her son run off the field after the play, drop to his knees and pull his helmet off. She was text messaging a friend, closer to the field, who, after a few minutes, told her to come down to the sidelines.
“He was holding his head. I said, ‘What’s going on?’ He said, ‘Mom, I can’t hold my head up,’” she recalled. She asked where his head hurt. “He goes, ‘It just hurts. I want to get out of here, I need to go.’”
Medics on scene evaluated David and determined he should be taken to the hospital.
“I said I’ll take him in. I chose to do that; he didn’t want to go in an ambulance,” Linda said. “The EMTs that were there didn’t put a neck brace on him, (they) just said he needs to go in. It could just be a sprain.”
Doctors at Providence Centralia Hospital ran tests and sent his MRI results to Harborview, which recommended he be moved to the Seattle hospital.
“Not one time through this whole thing was he out, like knocked out,” she said, explaining that a concussion was not a concern. “He is well aware of where he’s at. They ask him questions, they answer him, and everything’s pretty crisp with him.”
Young, a senior, has been a starter on the Pirate football team since his freshman year, at running back, quarterback and linebacker. He led the Pirates to the State 2B semifinals as a sophomore, but suffered a season-ending injury in a Week 4 loss to Toledo last season.
He was also star outfielder and two-time All-Area selection on Adna’s baseball team, which won the State 2B championship last spring.
“My impression is that D is one obviously very gifted young man, but he’s also very tough,” Adna School District Superintendent Jim Forrest said. “He’s got a lot of very positive characteristics. He’s very loving, and very caring.”
Forrest added that Young has also been a teacher’s assistant in physical education classes at Adna Elementary School.
“Those kids just look at him like he’s a superstar,” he said.
Young, 17, has had plenty of visitors during his time in Seattle. A number of friends came up on Saturday, when he was still in the ICU, and several friends stopped by to watch the Seahawks play the Detroit Lions on Monday Night Football, his mother said.
“It’s hard for him, really hard, and he’s very scared. When he’s got all these physicians and surgeons and specialists telling him how bad it is, he listens,” Linda said. “But he’s kind of got his little sarcasm coming, here and there. Sometimes he’s in good spirits a little bit, and sometimes … It’s really painful for him.”
A GoFundMe account was also created on Monday evening to help support the family through what’s sure to be a trying next few months.
“There’s been a lot of support, and that’s been great. He’s a good kid,” she said. “It just sucks that it’s his senior year and he’s done.”
Note: The GoFundMe account for David Young, set up to provide financial support for his family, can be found online at www.gofundme.com/2j5pgyk8.
