Miraculously, local hockey player avoids paralysis after collision

HIS PHONE buzzed and "Patrick" popped up on the screen. Shawn Cannon already had a pit in his stomach.

It was 4:30 last Monday afternoon. It was too early. His son, Patrick, wasn't finished hockey practice for another hour.

His fear was confirmed upon answering, when a voice other than his son was on the other end.

"It was Shane, my son's teammate, telling me that Patrick got hurt in practice. He didn't say how bad, but I could tell it was serious," Shawn Cannon said. "An ambulance was already at the rink. I told them I was 10 minutes away."

Shawn rushed from his office and zoomed to Grundy Arena in Bristol. He didn't know then that he wouldn't return home for 5 days.

"I knew something was wrong, but I wasn't really thinking it was serious," Shawn said. "I think when you're a hockey parent, you just assume everything is precautionary."

When he pulled up, Patrick was already in the ambulance. Paramedics removed the cage from Patrick's helmet, but he was immobilized, in his full hockey equipment.

Holy Ghost Prep's after-school junior varsity practice had been like any other up until that point. Patrick, a freshman defenseman, went into the corner with teammate Zach Babst. Hungry for the puck, they collided. No one is quite sure what happened next. Patrick awkwardly bounced off Zach and flew headfirst into the boards. It was purely accidental.

Patrick, 15, tried to get up, but immediately fell back to the ice. His arms weren't functioning enough to even break his fall.

Jim Babst, Zach's father and, coincidentally, a Philadelphia Fire Department captain since 1996, was watching from the glass. He'd seen enough collisions to know that one was not normal. He ran to the door and walked on the ice, halting practice. He told Patrick not to move.

Patrick was face down on the ice. His arms tingled and burned.

Now, as the doors to the ambulance closed, Shawn walked into the rink to collect Patrick's book bag and belongings.

"Patrick joked around," Shawn recalled. "He said, 'Just make sure I'm ready to play in the playoffs this weekend.' "

Patrick arrived at Aria Torresdale Hospital and underwent X-rays and a CT scan. Somehow, Aria's staff was able to remove Patrick's expensive equipment without disturbing him or cutting a single piece of gear.

By the time Shawn arrived, his wife Jennifer and doctors were waiting for him. They slid Patrick's scan onto an illuminated board for clarity.

"I'm not a doctor, but you could see the fracture in his neck," Shawn said. "It was crystal clear. I mean, really obvious."

Shawn's stomach jumped into his throat. Doctors told him it was the C4 vertebra, the place in the neck where spinal nerves control breathing motor functions and the diaphragm.

"This is serious, they said," Shawn recalled. "We can't work on him."

There was hope. Patrick could still feel his arms and move his legs. But the prospect was grim.

Patrick needed to be airlifted to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The 19.8-mile ambulance ride to Center City was too dangerous. One pothole, an abrupt stop, an unthinkable accident, even the most minor movement could push the cracked vertebra slicing further into his spinal cord, resulting in anything from permanent paralysis to life on a ventilator.

The Cannons signed off on the transfer. Shawn kept it together until he got outside.

Zach Babst and his heroic father, Jim, pulled up to the hospital just in time to see Patrick being loaded into the blue-and-white PennStar medical helicopter, rotors already spinning.

"That was the most emotional moment for me," Shawn said. "You could see that Zach was just beside himself. I knew what this kid was thinking. I was heartbroken. I knew he was blaming himself. It was just an accident. He did nothing wrong."

Before Shawn could reach the edge of the Aria Hospital driveway, the helicopter pilot called to let them know they'd already landed at CHOP. Patrick was secure.

Shawn and Jennifer met with Dr. Greg Heuer, a pediatric neurosurgeon who just happened to be a former hockey player from Prior Lake, Minn.

"Just looking at Patrick's injury on imaging, I was surprised he wasn't already paralyzed," Heuer recalled. "The amount his vertebra was pushing backward into the spinal cord was pretty significant."

Heuer told the Cannons that, for most hockey players with the same injury, people would already be raising funds to cope with an ensuing life as a quadriplegic. Surgery was the only option.

"Dr. Heuer told us numerous times before, during and after that the injury almost certainly resulted in paralysis," Shawn said. "I have chills just thinking about that. They told us the potentials, all the risks. They also said we were extremely lucky so far. They knew the spinal cord wasn't severed, but they were unsure of the damage. They just didn't know."

Children's Hospital rearranged its surgery schedule to prioritize Patrick on Tuesday morning, but a crew of surgeons was on standby Monday, in case Patrick developed signs of increasing paralysis.

At 7 a.m. Tuesday, Heuer's team opened Patrick's neck from the front - near his throat - to begin the delicate process of removing the fractured C4 vertebra and fragments. To replace the fractured part of the column, Heuer inserted a titanium rod and pelvic bones from a cadaver. Plates and screws were layered above and below the area for reinforcement and strength.

Then, Patrick was flipped onto his back, so more rods and screws could be inserted to fuse the section together.

Shawn and Jennifer Cannon were kept occupied during the 6-hour surgery by hundreds of text messages, phone calls and emails of support for Patrick from all over the hockey and Holy Ghost Prep world. Rival high school programs reached out to Holy Ghost Prep coach Gump Whiteside and manager Ryan Abramson. The Flyers' alumni wanted to visit Patrick in the hospital. He received a shoutout on Comcast SportsNet during "Flyers Pre-Game Live."

"Our phones were lighting up like Christmas trees," Shawn said. "I really can't explain it. We were very worried, obviously, but everyone's concern comforted us. That helped. Then Jim Babst showed up to sit and wait with us for 3 hours. That really touched us - both my wife and I were really emotional at that point."

Patrick Cannon walked out of Children's Hospital under his own power yesterday afternoon. He wore a neck brace, but he cheated quadriplegia. He was the 1 percent miracle - the lucky break in a potentially catastrophic injury that has confined so many other promising young lives to a wheelchair or bed.

Heuer told the Cannons this is the only injury of this magnitude he has operated on that did not end up like others. Physical and occupational therapists visited Patrick, but said he didn't even need their help. He was going up and down stairs in an hour.

"They attributed the miracle to two things: his anatomy, just having a very big spinal column, and Jim Babst," Shawn said. "He immobilized Patrick, got him the help required, stayed with him. He saved our son's life."

When Patrick could finally begin to return text messages and phone calls on Wednesday, the first person he contacted was Zach Babst.

"He was open enough with us to show us his phone and his messages," Shawn said. "He messaged Zach and said, 'This isn't your fault. Don't worry, I'm fine. This could've happened to anyone.' I think I welled up and cried a little bit. The swings of emotion and nerves have been incredible. This still feels surreal."

Patrick sent one other text message, to a female friend from grade school, who inquired about his injury. He replied, "I broke my neck, but they fixed it." It was a simple, almost comical response, but amazingly true.

He can return to Holy Ghost Prep next week. He just might need a little help carrying his backpack. Somehow, he might even play hockey again.

"When they were wheeling him in for surgery, he said he wants to be ready for next fall," Shawn said. "I have no idea what we'll decide. Contact sports are off-limits for the next 4 to 6 months, until the bone fuses. Doctors say his neck will be as strong as ever. As parents, we will definitely think twice, but they haven't ruled it out. After this, we have no choice, but to have faith."

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