Nick Suffers A GSW! (Gun Shot Wound) And Misses The Bill Dies Tournament.
As we entered the new year of 2014, Brunswick wrestling was looking good. We were all very excited about the remaining part of the schedule and knew, or at least felt very confidently, that we were going to take a handful of wrestlers down to the state tournament in Columbus in March.
The wrestlers who we felt most confident about based on their performance thus far were our sophomore 120 pounder Josh Heil, our senior 126 pounder Brett Thomas, our freshman132 pounder (Nicky), and our junior 138 pounder Christian Camacho. We also felt that some of the upper middleweights had strong potential.
The wrestlers who we felt most confident about based on their performance thus far were our sophomore 120 pounder Josh Heil, our senior 126 pounder Brett Thomas, our freshman132 pounder (Nicky), and our junior 138 pounder Christian Camacho. We also felt that some of the upper middleweights had strong potential.
With that being the case we were looking forward to the up coming Bill Dies Tournament to continue to improve and showcase our talented lineup.
Life has plenty of unforeseen things planned for us however and one such incident side railed us, which gave us quite a scare and put things in perspective in terms of what was most important in life...our own well being.
In the Winter of 2013/2014, which I mentioned was one of the most brutally cold winters on record there were a lot of "Cold Days" in the Brunswick School District. What that means is the schools were closed because the temperatures were too extreme for the kids to wait for their buses and things like that. Safety first. All about it.
However when the cold is that extreme the kids are pent up inside at home. As parents we try to do everything possible to keep them busy and entertained. In our house we had Alex sleep over for a few days. Alex you may remember from previous posts was our neighbor who Nicky and Kevin grew up with and I affectionately call him my "third son" as we were around each other so much as they were growing up.
Just as a side note...this is what Kevin looked like in 2014. He was still pretty wishy washy about wrestling but we kept him involved the best we could without forcing it on him...and he showed the same type of athleticism that Nick possessed.
Kevin with 1st place medal at an open tournament in Bay Village.
Well at some point during one of these brutally cold spells when Alex was visiting, Kevin and Alex decided it would be a great idea to go outside and shoot one of Nick's pellet guns. I really don't understand to this day why they thought this would be a good idea, especially in light of the fact that it was so cold out and there wasn't a snowballs chance in Hell that my wife or I would let them out in that kind of weather! All we can attribute it to is boys will be boys and they were a little stir crazy from being inside too long.
I have to state for the record that my boys have been shooting BB and pellet guns since they were young. Around 7 years old. And they were supervised until Nick and Alex were teenagers. They understood not to point a loaded gun...of any type...at a person or animal. They did not hunt with them. Just shot objects. Target practice. And I always had the guns put away in my room. Unloaded.
I'm not trying to start a whole gun control debate here or anything of the nature. In hindsight I bear full responsibility for not having them locked up whereby they couldn't have access to them.
Anyhow Nicky wasn't there as Kevin and Alex were planning to go outside. He was at a wrestling practice. The boys and coaches still had access to the wrestling room and the roads were clear and safe to drive upon, so why miss a practice?
Well when Nicky returned home it happened. Alex had, at some point earlier, put a pellet in the gun and Kevin was unaware of it. Nicky said something to Kevin and Kevin, not knowing there was a pellet in the gun, playfully lifted the gun, pointed it at him and pulled the trigger.
Pam and I were upstairs. There was no commotion or anything that we heard. Nick calmly walked upstairs and said that Kevin shot him in the neck. We went to him and there was blood trickling down from the entry wound which was located below his right ear.
The facts that the blood was not "spurting" out, that he was conscious, could move his head all around and was not in a tremendous amount of pain told me that, THANK GOD, it wasn't a life threatening injury.
Pam was naturally upset and started to get excited and emotional seeing what happened but I calmed her down. I didn't want Nick to be scared any more than he was either. He was remarkably calm. Love that kid. Always cool under pressure.
To be honest I thought it was a simple matter of just going to the emergency room and having it extracted. So we decided that Pam would run Nicky to the hospital, which is probably less than a mile from our house, and I would stay with Kevin and Alex. So that's what we did.
Kevin came upstairs and started crying, telling me he didn't mean to do it and that he didn't want Nicky to die. I reassured him that Nicky wasn't going to die and that we knew it was an accident and that he didn't have to blame himself.
I got all the facts out of him and Alex regarding the entire situation and we had a long talk about everything. As I said, I bear full responsibility for not having the pellet gun secured better. We all learned what is, I am sure, a life long lesson in the storing of BB & pellet guns.
As it turned out, the staff at the local hospital felt it was best to transport Nick to Rainbow Babies And Children's Hospital. They had X rays and MRI's done to locate the precise location of the pellet. What I thought was going to be a simple extraction process wasn't the case at all.
Because there was tissue trauma, the pellet looked as if it was lodged dangerously close to the spinal column in the upper cervical area. However several doctors felt that they really needed to let the tissue swelling subside to get an exact location and determine how to move forward. With that being the case, and because Nicky showed no signs of being in immediate danger, they sent Nick home with an appointment to follow up...but with instructions not to wrestle or do anything of a physical nature.
So that is why Nicky didn't wrestle in the Bill Dies Tournament his Freshman year. The team started to refer to the whole incident as the GSW, short for Gun Shot Wound, and busting Nicky's chops about not beating up on his brother any more etc...
After a couple more weeks, on January 21st, we had a follow up visit (and X-Rays and MRI's) with Nicky's neurosurgeon. Here's Nicky in the waiting room that day:
After reviewing everything the Dr. ascertained that there was no need to surgically remove the pellet as it was lodged in muscle and wouldn't be moving around anywhere. Unless we wanted to. When the swelling from the tissue trauma subsided it revealed exactly where that was. We decided to not undergo surgery. And it has never bothered him since. And he's wrestled hundreds of matches and countless hours of wrestling practices since.
It was close enough to the spine however to make us all realize how fortunate we were. It could have been so much worse. And the fact that the pellet didn't hit a major artery was another true blessing. All I know is that we love our sons with every fiber of our bodies and we are so very grateful that it turned out the way it did. This was one of those freak random occurrences that make you reevaluate all that is precious and significant in your life...and without a doubt Nick and Kevin are exactly that and so much more.
Thanks for taking time to read this latest installment on Nick's journey spanning his youth to high school wrestling career. Next installment will cover his first post season tournaments. Until next time, take care.
