Yesterday we brought you the story of a fighter in South Dakota who died following an MMA bout, this on the heels of other tragic news in combat sports involving Johnny Tapia’s death and Paul Williams being paralyzed in a motorcycle accident. There is more unfortunate news from earlier this month as it appears that Devin Johnson, a fighter training at Urijah Faber’s Ultimate Fitness gym, was paralyzed in a training session.
Sacramento’s News 10 with the information:
Devin Johnson, 22, was sparring at the facility, located on the 1700 block of I Street on May 14 when he fell while in a headlock.
When Devin arrived at UC Davis Medical Center he was paralyzed. The impact from the fall dislocated Devin’s spine.
…
“What Mr. Johnson, unfortunately, had was injury between his fourth and fifth spine in his neck,” said Dr. Kee Kim, Chief of Spinal Neurosurgery at UC Davis Medical Center.
Johnson’s spine slipped and caused damage to the spinal cord, causing what’s called facet fracture-dislocation. Kim used a metal implant to stabilize Johnson’s spine. It was his first time treating a patient who suffered a spinal cord injury from MMA.
It appears this was a takedown attempt while in a guillotine choke which caused the paralysis.
As MixedMartialArts.com points out, this is at least the fourth case of the same injury in the same situation since 2009, and one fighter died from the injuries.
Best wishes to Johnson on his recovery.
The video of the news report on the situation is after the jump…
Here’s the news piece on it:
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