Tolkkinen: Rural Minnesota teen paralyzed in hockey game finds reason for hope

In late January, Erica Drum of rural west-central Minnesota got almost the worst news a parent can receive.

Her son, Jackson, had been badly injured in a hockey game in Canada. A slam into the boards had broken the 17-year-old’s neck and left him paralyzed. Doctors told them that the fractures in his C-1 and C-2 vertebrae were complete, meaning that he was a quadriplegic and that he might not ever breathe on his own again.

“There was like no chance of recovery, is what the hospital in Canada told us,” she said.

As they searched for a place in the U.S. that could treat spinal cord injuries, even the prestigious Mayo Clinic declined to take him. Official there said that based on the MRI images of the injuries, they would recommend that Jackson go to long-term care, Erica said.

Instead, the family arranged medical transport aboard an airplane from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Atlanta, where he was whisked to the Shepherd Center, which treats brain and spinal cord injuries and has a youth center.

It was there that Jackson began surprising them. He reported that he could feel when they hugged him. He started being able to move some fingers. He can now move all of his toes and his knees.

Doctors at the Shepherd Center told the family that his vertebrae weren’t completely broken; in medical parlance, they called it an incomplete injury. That meant that some messages were able to travel from his brain throughout his body. The doctors have started to wean him off the ventilator and though it is painful, Jackson has been able to breathe on his own for up to 10 hours at a time.

“Today, actually, for the first time, in his legs, he could feel the temperature of water,” his mom said. “Before, he could not feel the temperature of water. A lot of people with spinal cord injuries cannot tell the temperature of different things.”

Jackson’s mom and aunt said the center hasn’t given them any prognosis; they don’t predict if he’ll ever walk again, or if he won’t. They simply work with him every day as much as he is able. Lately, that hasn’t been much because of a serious medical setback. They discovered that his feeding tube had been accidentally placed in his colon instead of his stomach, his family said.

He had to undergo surgery to repair the colon. But until it was fixed, he couldn’t receive any nourishment or pain medication, they said. The 6-foot-4 hockey player, normally 180 pounds, shrank to 126 pounds. He lost so much weight that a fatty padding in his stomach disappeared, preventing him from absorbing nutrients, his mother said.

“He was just in pain, and they couldn’t figure out why,” his mother said.

Despite the setbacks, his family said Jackson is determined to succeed. He’s upbeat by nature and a hard worker.

“Believe it or not, he’s been in good spirits,” Erica said. “He has a lot coming back, so I think he’s very hopeful to get in the gym and work on different things.”

He’s also studying Algebra 2. The center offers tutoring to its school-age patients in one subject of their choice, and Jackson chose to complete his junior high math class. He’s always been a good student and had a 3.9 GPA before the accident, his mother said.

Friends have visited him in Atlanta, as have his three younger sisters and his dad.

At the Shepherd Center, Jackson has met teenagers from around the country who have also suffered spinal cord injuries, including a Georgia wrestler who broke his neck in a championship match, said his aunt, Emily Haeg Nguyen, who lives in the Twin Cities. When I spoke with her, she was wrapping up a visit to Jackson in Atlanta.

Meanwhile, the family is racking up medical debt. A GiveSendGo fundraiser paid for the $45,000 airplane flight, but they said they have a half million dollars debt to the Canadian hospital that first treated Jackson. The family learned that the Canadian health system is free for Canadians, but not for visitors, and they haven’t learned yet what, if anything, their own health insurance will cover. Friends and family are planning an April 12 fundraiser for them at the NorthStar Sports Complex in Alexandria.

Jackson is unable to speak because he still has a tracheotomy tube. However, he mouths words to family members, and I told Haeg Nguyen that if he were up to it, he could comment for this column by mouthing words to her which she could then email me.

Last night, I received an email from Haeg Nguyen.

“Before I left yesterday, I asked Jack if he had anything to share with you for the paper,” she wrote. “He said, ‘I’m thankful for all of the support from people in Minnesota. Tell everyone I’m going to walk again. And I’m going to play hockey again.’ ”

The rest of us will be cheering him on.