USD kicker freshman Sam Sawyer is recovering at Rapid City Regional Hospital, after suffering severe injuries from a skiing accident Jan. 7.
While skiing with his friends at the Terry Peak ski area, he crashed and hit a tree, suffering a contusion (bruising) on the right side of his brain and a fractured sternum. He was transferred from the intensive care unit and placed in the neurology ward Monday, according to an update on his Caring Bridge Web site.
Football head coach Ed Meierkort visited with Sawyer and his family in the hospital Tues, Jan. 12 and said Sawyer was doing well and the doctors were hoping he would be back on his feet soon.
‘He is doing much better,’ Meierkort said. ‘He was a little frustrated because he doesn’t have the motor skills he had prior to the injury. He’s remembering things and each day he’s getting better. ‘But it’s still a long way to recovery.’
But it appears he is making progress since the accident.
According to a post made by Sawyer’s mother Leann on his Caring Bridge Web site, ‘Sam’s progress to recovery continues to impress us.
He has gone from having a hard time sitting at the edge of the bed or holding his head up, to walking to the restroom with help and walking half way around the nurses station with the assistance of a walker and a couple of therapists.’
Meierkort said the doctors in Rapid City were talking about moving him to eastern South Dakota, so he could be closer to his hometown of Brandon, S.D. On his Caring Bridge Web site, his mother wrote that the doctors were thinking of moving him closer to home later this week, where he would receive more therapy.
In the last season, Sawyer was one of the leading kickers on the Coyote squad, appearing in seven games for 35 kickoffs, with an average of 57.6 yards. He was a walk on for the USD football team, coming in from Brandon Valley High School.
For more information on Sawyer’s health, visit CaringBridge.org.
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