A high school athlete was left paralyzed from the chest down due to a horrific accident where he tripped over and hit a wall.
Dylan Wescott, 18, from Rock Falls High School was warming up for the triple jump ahead of his first track meet on Saturday, March 15 at the Westwood Sports Complex in Sterling, Illinois, per KWQC.
But in a horrifying twist of fate, a routine drill ended in tragedy.
While running through the sand during warm-ups, Dylan tripped - either over his own feet or the sand - and stumbled straight into a padded brick wall just a few feet away from the pit.
“He was warming up in the triple jump, just doing run throughs,” explained Eric Bontz, head track coach at Rock Falls.
“And as he was going through the sand, he tripped either over his own feet or over the sand, and kind of stumbled, and was kind of running as he was stumbling, and just fell head first into the wall.”
Dylan was briefly unconscious, but when he came to, he knew right away how serious the injury was, per Sauk Valley News.
“He’s like, ‘Mom, I broke my neck. I can’t move,’” his aunt Kim Kilday told reporters. “He knew immediately that it was bad.”
Doctors at a local hospital confirmed the devastating news: Dylan had broken a vertebra in his neck, with two more pressing against his spinal cord. He was paralyzed from the chest down.
Surgeons inserted a plate to replace the damaged vertebrae and placed a cage inside to help stabilize his neck.
He’s undergone multiple surgeries since and was later transferred to Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago to begin his long road to recovery.
His family launched a GoFundMe to help cover the mounting medical expenses. As of now, the campaign has raised over $29,000 and continues to grow with support from friends, neighbors, and total strangers.
On Friday, April 11, the family shared a glimmer of hope - posting a video of Dylan playing bocce ball in rehab with a recreation therapist. His mom, Nicol Wescott, called it their “BEST therapy day.”
“Thursday was our absolute BEST therapy day here!!” she wrote on Facebook. “I can’t even explain how well he did and the improvements today.”
Despite the physical challenges, Dylan’s spirit has been nothing short of inspiring.
“He’s a very empathetic kid. Really cares a lot about everybody, not just himself,” Coach Bontz said.
“You know, he’s a fantastic teammate. If I could have all my kids with a mentality like that, it would be a wonderful thing … He was always on time, always cared about what he was doing, always gave his best efforts.”
Before the accident, Dylan had just been accepted into a program to study veterinary technology after graduation. His aunt Kim reflected on how quickly life changed.
“You go from being a normal, happy family with, everybody talking about future plans and graduation, prom - he just got accepted to study to be a vet tech after high school - and then seeing him in a wheelchair, not able to do a lot of the things that he used to do. It really hurts,” she said.
As the family prepares for his eventual return home, the focus is shifting to adapting their lives for Dylan’s new needs.
“You’re looking at possibly an electronic hoist of some sort to get him in and out of his chair easily, so that once again, he’ll have some sense of independency,” Kim explained. “That’s the biggest thing right now. Is an 18-year-old boy who can’t feed himself.”
Still, there’s no shortage of gratitude for the overwhelming community support.
“The outpouring of the community has been wonderful,” Kim said. “But he’s got a long journey ahead of him, and that’s the toughest part, is all the unknowns and what he’s going to need when we do get to bring him home.”