Hayes Perno, the 7-year-old son of Georgia baseball coach David Perno, had one question for his father the night after center fielder Johnathan Taylor was rushed to the hospital with a broken neck.
“Is JT still going to be able to coach us at camp?” Hayes asked.
Perno had no answer then and, five weeks later, he still can’t say for certain. But the outlook is definitely more positive, according to a medical update provided Thursday at the Shepherd Center.
“There is definitely optimism,” Perno said during a news conference at the spinal-cord-injury rehabilitation facility. “If anybody deserves a miracle it’s Johnathan Taylor.”
Taylor, a 20-year-old junior from Acworth, was injured in an outfield collision with teammate Zach Cone during a game against Florida State on March 6. After an initial surgery by Dr. Kimberly Walpert at St. Mary’s Hospital in Athens to repair fractures of the C5 and C6 vertebrae in Taylor’s spine, he was transported to the Shepherd Center and remains a patient there.
Now everybody wants to know what Hayes Perno wants to know: Will JT walk again?
“That’s a question we get on almost a daily basis,” said Dr. Donald Peck Leslie, medical director at the Shepherd Center and one of Taylor’s attending physicians. “That’s not known at this time. Walking is a big goal for everybody who comes here. But at this time we can’t say that.”
After the news conference, Leslie was asked about the general recovery rate of patients with such an injury. “The majority of people with this injury don’t walk, unfortunately,” he said.
Leslie said Taylor is a tetraplegic, meaning all of his extremities have been affected by the injury. It does not mean they will remain that way.
Taylor has made tremendous strides in the five weeks since he has been at Shepherd. While he remains paralyzed from the waist down, he has regained movement in his arms and shoulders and is able to operate a manual wheelchair.
“He was having a great deal of respiratory trouble when he first got here, but complications now are few,” Leslie said. “He’s strengthening. He gets up and out of bed independently every day. He’s gaining strength every day. I think you’ll see in the future that his prognosis is very good.”
Taylor rises at 6 a.m. daily in his fourth-floor room at Shepherd and immediately heads to the gym for rehab. “He’s a trained athlete; he wants to get to the gym,” Leslie said with a laugh.
Taylor will remain at Shepherd several more weeks. Eventually he’ll be discharged and continue his rehabilitation as an outpatient.
Catastrophic-injury insurance policies provided by Georgia and the NCAA will cover Taylor’s medical costs for the next 30 years, according to athletic director Greg McGarity. Taylor will receive a lump-sum payment at the end of this year and will receive monthly payments after that. However, insurance does not cover all expenses.
The “Johnathan Taylor Fund” was established by First American Bank of Athens to defray those expenses. It can be accessed at georgiadogs.com, and donations will be solicited at Georgia’s G-Day game Saturday at Sanford Stadium.
“I don’t want to go into details, but there are expenses that can run a lifetime that aren’t covered by insurance,” said McGarity, addressing the need to solicit additional funds. “This fund was established to defray those additional expenses. For instance, the insurance may provide for a special van, but it may not provide fuel and insurance for that van.
“Believe me when I say, we stand behind our student-athletes, especially those in need.”
Taylor is the second Georgia baseball player in two years to suffer a serious spinal injury. Second baseman Chance Veazey severed his spinal cord in a motor-scooter accident in October 2009 and remains in a wheelchair.
Perno said that experience and Veazey’s interaction with Taylor have helped them all through this ordeal. Taylor’s mother, Tandra, currently lives in the residence hall at Shepherd, and UGA baseball team trainer Mike Dillon visits Taylor five days a week.
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