“I can’t even explain it to you; he’s like a miracle,” Dugas, a Port Arthur resident, said Wednesday, her voice breaking.
Doctors aren’t calling it a miracle yet, but they expressed “cautious optimism” now that Buffalo Bills reserve tight end Everett is showing significant signs of improvement.
Everett can wiggle his toes, bend his hip, move his ankles, elevate and kick his leg, as well as extend his elbows and slightly flex his biceps, said Dr. Kevin Gibbons, supervisor of neurosurgery at Millard Fillmore Gates Hospital.
But Everett, who’s breathing on his own after being taken off a respirator Wednesday, cannot move his hands after sustaining a life-threatening spinal cord injury.
“There are some answers now. And many more questions remain,” Gibbons told reporters. “The patient’s made significant improvement. But no one should think the functions in his legs is close to normal. Not even close. If you ask me, ‘Would he walk again?,’ I would tell you that I wouldn’t bet against it. But he has a long way to go.”
Bills orthopedic surgeon Andrew Cappuccino improved his prognosis, too, saying he’s “cautiously slightly more optimistic.” That’s a big improvement from Monday, when he said Everett’s chances for a full neurologic recovery were “bleak, dismal.”
Dugas left her home Monday not knowing whether her son would walk again. Everything changed Tuesday, when she watched her son move his limbs and feel her touch when he was partially awakened from a sedated state.
She spoke publicly for the first time Wednesday, knowing doctors had amended their initial grim prognosis.
“That’s right. They’re surprised themselves,” Dugas said. “They don’t know Kevin Everett. Oh, man, I always told him when he was a little boy, ‘You show them better than you can tell them.’ He’s going to be fine. I really believe it.”
Emotionally drained yet genuinely upbeat, Dugas let out a big laugh in discussing the last four difficult days.
“Happy,” said Dugas, who has spent three days at her son’s bedside. “I’m extremely happy. I’m grateful.”
Everett sustained the injury Sunday after ducking his head while tackling the Denver Broncos’ Domenik Hixon during the second-half kickoff of the Bills’ season opener. He dropped face-first to the ground after his helmet hit Hixon high on the left shoulder and side of the helmet.
Unable to get the Bills game on television at home, Everett’s mother called several sports bars and found one showing the game. Dugas walked in just as the second half began, just in time to see her son fall to the ground.
“That’s the first thing I saw. I was so upset. I was distraught, and I started panicking, ‘What can I do? And I’ve got to get to him because he’s not getting up,’” she said. “I can’t explain to you how I felt, because there’s no words for it. It was the worst thing I had ever saw.”
“‘Get up,’” she recalled saying. “I mean, I can’t explain it. It was just horrible.”
Dugas went out of her way to thank the Bills, the medical staff and fans for their work and support. Part of her time with Everett is spent reading him the many cards and letters that have arrived at the hospital.
“We’re going to take it slow getting him up on his feet, but we hope to see him walk out of here,” she said. “He has a strong will and determination. I tell you, he’s not going to settle for this. You’re all going to see a miracle."
