'Cool' New Treatment

NFL uses hypothermia for spinal cord injury

• Mannie Garza
• November 2007 JEMS Vol. 32 No. 11
• 2007 Nov 1

Professional football player Kevin Everett escaped paralysis, likely thanks to a novel cooling treatment that was started in the Rural/Metro ambulance that took him off the field on Sept. 9, after he suffered a cervical fracture (between C-3 and C-4) and spinal cord injury during the Buffalo Bills’ opening game.

“We cooled the patient in the ambulance as much as we could with the AC and ice packs, and gave him cooled saline,” says Rural/Metro of Western New York area manager Russell Dimitroff, EMT-P, who’s in charge of Rural/Metro’s stadium operations in Buffalo. In addition, Everett received a high dose of the steroid methylprednisolone in the ambulance.

The goal was to cool the patient to 92º F to reduce inflammation and decrease cellular damage. In the hospital, after 48 hours of cooling, Everett’s temperature was raised one degree every eight hours. Everett ultimately had surgery to remove the injured disk and bone pressing on his spinal cord.

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