Man stays optimistic after paralyzing injury
by LARA BRENCKLE, The Patriot-News
Saturday July 19, 2008, 11:00 PM
(Submitted photo: Brian Keefer, 21, was paralyzed in an accident at a gym early this month.)For all of his life, Brian Keefer was a climber. A jumper. A runner. His body — from his formidable volleyball prowess to his barbershop baritone — was where his happy-go-lucky spirit and infectious enthusiasm met the world. So it wasn’t unusual that on July 1, 12 days before his 21st birthday, Keefer and a group of friends were at the Viper Pit, a tumbling gym in Fairview Twp., doing flips from a trampoline-like runway into a pit of foam. Keefer, who’d already managed a double flip, was challenged to try a triple.
He ran and sprang off the end. But instead of making three full turns and landing on his back, he plunged head-first through the foam, he said. “I remember hitting bottom,” said Keefer, of Newberry Twp. “It was a big shock. I couldn’t move anything, and it’s been the same since.”
He hit with such force that his C-4 vertebra slipped up slightly over the C-5 vertebra, said Dr. Tim Reiter, director of spinal neurosurgery at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, who has treated Keefer.
The injury has left Keefer a quadriplegic.
To repair the damage, Reiter fused the vertebrae and removed a burst disc. All is supported by a series of pins, screws and plates, he said.
While the prognosis for full recovery from such an injury can be “pretty poor,” Reiter said, there are a number of factors working in Keefer’s favor. The injury was mostly to the ligaments around the spinal column; the column itself sustained minimal damage; and Keefer has a positive attitude, the doctor said.
“He’s in shape, so he’s starting from a good place” for therapy, Reiter said. “A good recovery for him would be if he can use his arms. This is a significant injury. I’ve had some patients with this type of injury get walking back, but that’s a minority.”
For now, Keefer’s frenetic life has stilled. His mother, Dawn, must move his hand to pet the therapy dogs that visit his hospital room. His dad, Steve, guides him through basic physical therapy exercises in a quiet room at the medical center. But beyond that room, Keefer’s friends and community have gone into a flurry of activity.
They said the goal is easing the Keefers’ financial concern so they can concentrate on everyone’s most fervent wish: getting Brian Keefer, a junior at Lock Haven University studying to be a teacher and coach, back on his feet.
Assistance is coming from all around the West Shore. At the Fishing Creek Salem United Methodist Church, where Brian Keefer’s Eagle Scout project — a sand volleyball court — stands, church members take turns mowing his family’s lawn, making dinners and paying for gas cards to get the family to and from the hospital.
Paul Baughman, the pastor at Fishing Creek, said the community is lifting up the Keefer family, which includes Brian’s brothers, Adam, Colin and Scott. Then there are the scores of friends, fellow counselors from his summer job at the West Shore YMCA day camp, high school and college buddies — groups who’d never met before, but are drawn together. They’ve papered the walls of Keefer’s hospital room with banners, signs and cards.
The man behind a lot of the fundraising momentum is Keefer’s best friend, Matt Marshall, 20, of Newberry Twp. “I just kind of lost it,” Marshall said of hearing about Keefer’s injury. “I’ve never been so scared in my life.”
For Marshall, the best cure for his fear was to throw himself into a torrent of activity. He’s organizing fundraisers quickly before Keefer’s friends head back to college next month.
Late last week, Brian Keefer moved to Magee Rehabilitation Hospital in Philadelphia, where a number of athletes have been treated for similar injuries.
Keefer said he is confident that love and support will carry him far. “I just want to say thanks to everyone, from the community, from the church, my family,” he said. “Everyone’s been a huge help.”
No fewer than a half-dozen fundraisers have been planned in his honor:
- Today: Car wash, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., Commerce Bank parking lot, 1130 Carlisle Road, Camp Hill.
- Tuesday: Family Night at the Camp Hill Friendly’s, 5-8 p.m.
- Friday: Hot dog and bake sale, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., West Shore YMCA lobby, 410 Fallowfield Road, Camp Hill.
- July 27: Car wash, 11:30 a.m.-2:15 p.m., Camp Hill Mall Commerce Bank branch parking lot.
- Aug. 3: Volleyball tournament, City Island and Holiday Inn West on the Carlisle Pike.
- Aug. 9: Car wash, 9:30 a.m.-1:15 p.m., Camp Hill Mall Commerce Bank branch parking lot.
- Aug. 16: Variety show, 7:30 p.m., Fishing Creek Salem United Methodist Church, 402 Valley Road, Fairview Twp.
- Aug. 17: Car wash, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., Commerce Bank parking lot, 1130 Carlisle Road, Camp Hill.
- Lime green “LiveStrong”-style bracelets that say “Pray for Brian” can be ordered for $3.
- Donations can be made to the Brian Keefer Medical Fund at any PNC Bank.
Information: Matt Marshall at marshmd06@juniata.edu.
(original article posted here: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2008/07/brian_keefer.html )