The prognosis is looking good for Kevin Pearce, the champion snowboarder who sustained a traumatic brain injury during a halfpipe practice Dec. 31, according to The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/17/sports/17pearce.html?ref=sports
Pearce, who would have been a contender in the Winter Olympics if not for his accident, has been recovering from his injuries at a brain rehabilitation facility, Craig Hospital, in Englewood, Colo.
The 22-year-old has been making so much progress that he will be going home to Norwich, Vt., in the next few weeks according to the story, which is headlined “No Gold, but Something Better: Going Home.”
Pearce’s doctor believes that the youth will one day be snowboarding again. But the physician warned that Pearce shouldn’t be trying to do any halfpipes again. But one wonders if a snowboarder like Pearce, part of a counterculture sport that courts danger, will heed any doctor’s warnings.
Pearce still risks dying because of the blood that filled his brain’s ventricles after his accident. He also sustained deep axonal brain injury.
He was practicing a “double cork,” a key stunt, when he hit his head on the halfpipe. Pearce got his injuries even though he was wearing a helmet.
In rehab, Pearce had to learn to talk and walk again. He is still having problems with his balance, and is wearing special eyeglasses to address that issue.
And his memory is still very sketchy, according to his family. Let’s hope he remembers the lesson of his TBI: No more halfpipes.
