Men,
I wanted to give you an update on the young man that I asked you to pray for Cameron Horner. My buddy Kevin provided us an update yesterday and I'll just pass on to you what he wrote us.
A bunch of us drove down to Wilmington yesterday to visit him and his family. From an “earthy” standpoint, things don’t look so hot! He broke, and compressed vertebrae at the C-3 region in his neck as well as severing his spinal cord. Doctor’s give “default” information based on what they can observe in conjunction with past experience and based on this, they say that he’ll never walk again. But the fact is that The Lord had plans for the young man BEFORE he injured himself and we’re not so big that we can thwart His plans. He has one more surgery scheduled today to insert stainless steel rods in his neck. Thursday, they’ll fly him down to Atlanta and he’ll start rehab at a center there.
So anyway… was talking to the young woman who rescued him (Christina) to find out EXACTLY what happened. She told me that him and her were on the dock and that there were signs ON the dock that said, “NO DIVING”. She’s a certified lifeguard. She said he dove in once and did just fine. She pointed to the sign and told him to CUT IT OUT and he told her that he knew how to shallow water dive, but she told him that from what she observed that he did NOT. Then he dove again and just didn’t come up like he did last time. She said she was just starting to become concerned when he came into view. She said this made her mad because young boys at her pool would pull pranks like this to get her attention (she’s VERY attractive). She jumped in and smacked Cameron on the leg HARD!... but there was no response. She smacked him again and then started to think that something was wrong. She carefully turned him over and he was blue, but very soon after that started breathing and talking to her. He told her that he couldn’t feel anything below his chest and that he was having a LOT of trouble moving his arms and legs. At this point she knew what happened and she screamed at the top of her lungs to a woman who was within sight to dial 911, and she floated him to slightly more shallow water and waited with him for EMS. If Cameron had been by himself, or if less observant or experienced people had been there, he’d most likely NOT be with us now.
We got to go in two at a time to visit him, for a few minutes each. They’ve got him mildly sedated because his head is in a “halo” in order to prevent movement. I went in with my oldest son Ben and we prayed for him and just told him we were glad he was alive! He was happy to see us and told us he loved us. He’s FULLY AWARE that he did something unwise, but his joy is INTACT. Molly didn’t go in. She just couldn’t do it. Cameron spends a fair amount of time at our house and it really hit home with Molly. Being an RN, she sees this sort of thing a LOT and it was just too much for her to see one of her own like this. But she visited and encouraged the Horner family.
He can’t swallow correctly just yet. They expect that will clear up as soon as the swelling in his neck decreases. They’re feeding him through an NG tube. He has motor control of his arms, but fine motor control of his hands just hasn’t returned yet. His right hand is better than his left. He was almost able to form a handshake with his right hand, but the left hand just won’t cooperate.
Christina told me that he dove into 4’ 8” of water. She and I think that his arms must have already been down past his head and that he struck his head on the top toward the front. He has NO markings on his forehead or top of his head from hitting anything and I asked him WHERE he plowed into the bottom! He said he just didn’t know! Christina said that the bottom was packed sand.
Several of us feel that he’ll walk out of the rehab center in Atlanta. I don’t know why we feel this way, but we do. At this point though there’s nothing any of us can do except help his family and keep him and them all up in prayer before The Lord.
I’ll keep you guys posted and thanks for praying.
… Kev
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