As football season kicked off, our office chatter has centered around fantasy football leagues, teams, and individual players. This week we’ve been following Buffalo Bill tight end Kevin Everett, who suffered a major spinal cord injury during Sunday’s game.

Minutes after his injury, Everett received an experimental therapy, an intravenous ice-cold saline solution, which put him in a hypothermic state. The idea behind the treatment is to lower the body temperature to restrict damage to the spinal cord.

“Right now, it's not mainstream medicine” said Dr. Barth Green, co-founder of the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at the University of Miami, who has helped develop the treatment.

Amazingly, as of Thursday, 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. While all are significant signs of improvement, Everett has yet to show any movement in his hands.

The experimental therapy is still under scrutiny and doctors don’t have enough information to give a long-term prognosis. They are being cautious because he is still susceptible to life-threatening events like blood clots, infection and breathing failure.

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