A former Sweet Home High School athlete who nearly died after a college pole vaulting accident in 2007 is being treated for a serious spinal cord injury at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend.

Keegan Burnett, 27, who now lives in Albany, is paralyzed from the waist down after a night skiing accident at Hoodoo Ski Area on Jan. 28. He is the son of Rick and Alice Burnett and a 2002 Sweet Home graduate.

“Keegan was skiing Saturday night with friends and the accident occurred when he tried to make a jump,” his mother said. “He said he made the jump twice before.”

Doctors told the Burnetts that Keegan “folded himself in half and landed on his head.”

“It completely blew out his T12 vertebrae and ruptured the C4 and C5 vertebrae,” his mother said.

The accident happened about 9 p.m. and Keegan was taken to St. Charles Medical Center by ambulance.

He had surgery Sunday, his mother said, and doctors installed a “cage” around the T12 vertebrae and cleaned up the others.

“His spinal cord was not severed, but it was severely crushed,” Burnett said. “The doctor said it is highly unlikely that Keegan will ever be able to walk again. It’s a miracle that he’s alive.”

Burnett said doctors are especially concerned about a concussion Keegan suffered, and he had CAT scans to determine if there was any brain swelling every day for the first three or four days he was in the hospital.

Back in May 2007, Keegan suffered a traumatic head injury while pole vaulting for the Idaho State University Bengals track team during a meet in Utah. Coming down, he struck his head on concrete that had not been covered with a protective mat. A portion of his skull had to be removed due to swelling of his brain. Keegan was in the intensive care unit at McKay-Dee Hospital for weeks and lost more than 35 pounds.

“Because of the previous injury, Keegan reacts differently than other people and the severity of a concussion is much more severe,” his mother said.

After healing, Keegan completed a degree in human physiology from the University of Oregon in 2008.

“He recently applied to graduate schools in human physiology at the UO, Oregon State and Arizona,” Burnett said. “He just got a temporary job at Entek in Lebanon and had worked one day before the accident.”

Daily updates about Keegan can be found at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/keeganburnett.

Originally posted here:
Young athlete suffers second serious injury

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