A high school athlete has been left fighting for his life after suffering a horrible injury during a warm up.
Dylan Wescott, 18, was doing a routine warm-up for the triple jump ahead of a track meet at Rock Falls High School in Illinois on March 15 when he suffered the life-changing accident.
After tripping seemingly over his own feet, the teenager collided with a brick wall head first, leaving him paralysed from the chest down.
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It was discovered at the hospital that Dylan had suffered a broken vertebra in his neck. A plate was inserted into his body to replace the broken vertebrae, while a cage was also placed inside to help stabilise his neck.
He now faces multiple surgeries and a long road to recovery, with his family launching a fundraiser to help pay for the teenager's treatment.
Eric Bontz, head track coach at Rock Falls High School, said: "He was warming up in the triple jump, just doing run throughs, and as he was going through the sand, he tripped either over his own feet or over the sand, and kind of stumbled, and was kind of running as he was stumbling, and just fell head first into the wall.
"He’s a very empathetic kid. Really cares a lot about everybody, not just himself. You know, he’s a fantastic teammate," the coach said.
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"Like I said, if I could have all my kids with a mentality like that, it would be a wonderful thing, because, you know, just a very prompt kid. He was always on time, always cared about what he was doing, always gave his best efforts."
Dylan’s aunt, Kim Wescott Kilday, said: "You go from being a normal, happy family with, everybody talking about future plans and graduation, prom - he just got accepted to study to be a vet tech after high school—and then seeing him in a wheelchair, not able to do a lot of the things that he used to do. It really hurts."
Now, his family are preparing to welcome him home, although there will a lot of changes to his lifestyle as sadly he cannot currently feed himself.
"You’re looking at possibly an electronic hoist of some sort to get him in and out of his chair easily, so that once again, he’ll have some sense of independency," Kim added.
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"That’s the biggest thing right now. Is an 18-year-old boy who can’t feed himself."
The GoFundMe fundraiser, which was set up to help cover the eye-watering cost of medical bills and rehabilitation in the US, has already seen over $23k raised at the time of writing.
Kim also thanked to the community for their support after this terrible incident, saying: "The outpouring of the community has been wonderful, but he’s got a long journey ahead of him, and that’s the toughest part, is all the unknowns and what he’s going to need when we do get to bring him home."
To donate to the GoFundMe, click here.
James Moorhouse