Fourteen-year-old Jonathan Cardenas once aspired to football stardom. Today, he is working toward another goal: walking.
Though paralyzed from a pre-season football injury at Point Loma High School, Cardenas remains a spirited and optimistic soul. At a time when even the strongest of adults might surrender their will, Cardenas continues to fight back from his injury ” and is encountering an outpouring of love and support from the Point Loma and Ocean Beach communities. A special spaghetti fund-raising dinner is planned for Friday, Oct. 19, to help the family offset Cardenas’ rising medical costs.
On the morning of Aug. 16, Cardenas suffered a spinal injury that doctors thought would leave him a paraplegic. As it turns out, Cardenas is one of the lucky few who will eventually be able to walk again.
“Doctors say he’s a special patient,” said Cardenas’ mother, Elida. “He’s working hard to walk, but no one knows if he’ll ever be able to play football again.”
On the day of the accident, Cardenas went to football practice with a sore shoulder, a waning injury that often bothered him. Instead of using the injured shoulder to tackle a teammate, he bent his neck down and used his head, a practice strongly frowned upon by coaches and players. The impact of the collision fractured Cardenas’ C-6 vertebra, an injury that 99 percent of the time leaves patients permanently paralyzed.
“My body fell to the ground and I couldn’t move anything,” Cardenas reflected. “It was like my body was asleep but I was awake.”
After eight hours of surgery, Cardenas awoke to a different life. An artificial bone and a metal plate were placed in his neck to support the damaged spinal cord.
“When I got out of surgery I couldn’t move my legs and my arms were really weak,” Cardenas said. At that point, doctors could not determine whether he would walk again, but they were sure his dream of being a football star was over.
After two months of rehabilitation at Rady Children’s Rehabilitation Center in Kearny Mesa, Cardenas can now support his legs with a walker and with a nurse’s assistance. He can also move his fingers enough to slowly chat with friends on the Internet.
“Last week, my doctor told me that 99 percent of his patients don’t walk. He said that I was really lucky and that it’s a miracle I can walk,” Cardenas said.
Rady’s therapists keep him on a tight, aggressive schedule that requires a combination of physical therapy, occupational therapy, acupuncture and psychology appointments six days a week until 4 p.m., with a break on Sundays. He will be discharged Oct. 26 and will continue the healing process with outpatient therapy.
Cardenas still attends PLHS football games to facilitate his recovery.
“It motivates me a lot to get better,” he said.
He also has the support of friends and family, particularly his parents and his cousin, David Rojas, who also plays for the PLHS football team. Cardenas’ mother is with him every day and David sometimes sleeps at Rady’s.
“I would like to play football again, but I’d be really scared to hit,” said Cardenas. “If I could, I would. But I really like physical therapy, and I’m pretty interested in that now.” It may be nice to work as an outpatient sports therapist, Cardenas said.
Doctors are sure Cardneas will recover more quickly than other patients, but his medical bills may take years to pay off. His family has limited health insurance and his mother left her job to support him through the rehabilitation. Cardenas has a younger sister, and the only source of income is his father.
To help offset their teammates’ medical bills, the Point Loma High School Football Boosters are hosting the dinner at the Masonic Center Hall on Friday from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.. Tickets are $7 per person and all proceeds will be placed in a Washington Mutual trust fund in Cardenas’ name to defray the medical costs.
The dinner will include live music, a raffle and a silent auction. Thanks to generous donations from Point Loma and Ocean Beach residents, the auction has a collection of prizes that range from surfboards and dinner gift certificates to high-priced jewelry, according to organizers.
“We’ve already raised $1,600 thus far,” said Sondra Gemmill, one of the event leaders. “We (the PLHS football team) played in Culver City and they were very generous “” we collected about $400 there.”
The contributions by football parents and the PLHS administration should make for a great turnout, Gemmill said.
For more information about the dinner, call Gemmill at (619) 892-1525. Donations for the Cardenas family can be mailed to PO Box 7948, San Diego, CA 92167. Make checks payable to the Point Loma Football Boosters and leave a memo on the check for the Jonathan Cardenas Fund.