Will Kevin Pearce ever snowboard again? That was the first question that came out of Kevin’s mouth when he regained consciousness and the ability to speak after sustaining a traumatic brain injury on an icy halfpipe in Utah in December 2009. Kevin was training to compete against multiple gold medalist snowboarder Shaun White when he hit his head on the halfpipe and sustained a severe traumatic brain injury.
White told the Vancouver Sun, ‘Obviously, there’s been injuries happen to people very close to us – you get an injury and somebody goes down and crashes and it just really shocks people. This sport hasn’t got more dangerous. It was dangerous to begin with. We drive around in cars and that’s pretty dangerous, too.” White also mentioned that he thought restrictions on difficult tricks would be preposterous. He continued, ‘It’s not just going up there and being a daredevil. There’s a plan about it. The progression of tricks is on the right path. Hopefully we haven’t hit the ceiling yet.’
An NBC Nightly News video commented that Kevin has suffered memory loss and vision impairment, and that he must relearn to walk again with the help of physical therapists. Another NBC news feature also aired on Monday, February 22.
The Facebook page ‘Well Wishes for our Friend Kevin Pearce’ continues to amass fans. There were 40,442 supporters of Kevin at the time of this writing. Prayers and well-wishes from fans continue to appear on the page at the frequency of about 5 per hour. One of the most recent posts read, ‘Kevin My dear u r the inspiration to us all! we miss u and love u to death! get better soon!! i keep u in my prayers and u have inspired me to learn how to snowboard!!! once i do the first thing i will get is the I ride 4 Kevin to put on me and my board!!! Kevin we all know u will b back on ur board as soon as possible and i cant wait!’ Excessive exclamation points and text message grammar notwithstanding, it is evident that thousands of people want Kevin healed and back out on the slopes.
We will continue to report on Kevin’s progress toward a full recovery as more information becomes available.
References:
NBC Nightly News. (February 18, 2010) ‘Kevin Pearce on NBC Nightly News.’ Retrieved on February 21, 2010 from the Snow Rev Web site:http://www.snowrev.com/Videos/interviews/Kevin-Pearce-must-learn-to-walk…
Pearce, Adam. (February 22, 2010) ‘Well wishes to our Friend Kevin Pearce.’ Retrieved on February 22, 2010 from the Facebook Web site: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Well-Wishes-to-our-Frend-Kevin-Pearce/2323…
Walker, Ian. (February 18, 2010) ‘Star’s top challenger watches Olympics from brain injury facility.’ Retrieved on February 21, 2010 from the Vancouver Sun Web site:http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/2010wintergames/Star+challenger+watch…