A team physician for Tulane University is reporting that senior safety Devon Walker was in stable condition and recovering after undergoing a three-hour surgery to stabilize his spine.
“… We anticipate Devon will remain in (intensive care) for the next few days,” Dr. Greg Stewart, Tulane University’s director of sports medicine said. “He is in stable condition and it will be several days before we can assess his condition post-surgery.”
Walker, 21, fractured his spine Saturday during the Green Wave’s game against Tulsa , when he collided head-on with one of his teammates while trying to tackle a ball carrier.
After the collision, the Tulane senior lay motionless on the Tulsa field as trainers and doctors rushed onto the field and performed CPR on the athlete.
Walker was then fitted with a cervical collar and carefully moved onto an ambulance which sped him to the nearby St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa.
FOX Sports reported a hush went over the crowd at H.A. Chapman Stadium as Walker was attended to, and that several coaches were in tears as he was taken away in an ambulance. Spectators bowed their heads as someone on the field led the stadium in prayer.
”These kind of injuries take 24, 48, sometimes 72 hours to fully declare themselves,” Stewart said before the surgery. ””It doesn’t matter what everybody says or thinks. The way the neck works, you have about 48 hours before you know anything – and maybe even a little bit of time after surgery. We don’t know what the long-term implications and outcomes are going to be.”
You can watch the brutal collision where Devon Walker suffered his spinal cord injury in the video below:
