A promising high school wrestler was left with 'no feeling with the shoulders down' after having had a broken neck during last week's state championship in Georgia.
Jefferson High School Senior Dominic Haines, 17, is currently unable to eat or drink after suffering from the grim injury during his quarter -final competition in Macon.
It was described as a 'freak … one-on-a-million accident', and he was taken away on a stretcher to the hospital, where he still undergoes treatment while he feels 'hopeless, angry and scared'.
The teenager had 'unbearable pain' and will undergo a second operation on Thursday to melt the vertebrae from behind, because the muscles and ligaments were all torn completely, “his father revealed.
“Heartbreaking,” Zach Hairen wrote earlier this week. “I hate to see my boy so much pain … please pray for our son.”
Zach Haines has placed regular social media updates about the condition of his son, while almost $ 70,000 was collected via a GoFundMe page that is set up to support him on his 'tough path for us'.
A wrestler in high school remained partially paralyzed after a broken neck
Dominic Haines (R) was left with 'no feeling with the shoulders down', his father (L) revealed
The injury took place after what was described as a 'freak … one-on-a-million accident'
“If this hadn't happened, I think he would have achieved that goal to be the state champion,” said his coach coach Kyle Baird.
Instead, doctors 'put a cage around his spinal cord' and give the 17-year-old a respiratory tube. Then, on Wednesday evening, Haines SR revealed that his son had had a setback and now needs a food tube to be inserted through his nose.
'Dominic went and had taken X -rays as he ate and drank a variety of things. They discovered that when he swallows, things don't work as they should be, “he wrote on Facebook.
'So discover that they cut all food and drink. What is devastating for him. He could have eaten nothing but Pudding and Jello, but he enjoyed us and brought him back different types of juices, smoothies and powerades for him to drink. A step forward and two steps back on it.
'Tomorrow he will have his second operation at 7:30 am and he is ready to get that. He knows he will have a lot of pain, but understands that it is the next step in the process. '
It will remain with a scar – about three centimeters long – and will more than probably lose about 25 percent of his motion range in his neck. '
Earlier this week, meanwhile, Zach Haines described the 'unbearable pain' that his son tried to sleep in a neck brace and oxygen mask.
He also opened the roller coaster of emotions of his son last week when he tried to get the feeling back in his body.
“Dominic's shoulders, upper to middle back and buttock muscles show the most improvement and have the most power,” he wrote on Tuesday.
“His feeling is about the same in his legs, but he feels in the middle part of his stomach and about 3/4 over his arm.”
