Pirates fan who fell off 21-foot wall at PNC Park says he hasn't watched video of incident in first interview
Pirates fan who fell off 21-foot wall at PNC Park says he hasn't watched video of incident in first interview
The Pittsburgh Pirates fan who fell over PNC Park's 21-foot wall is awake enough to give his first interview, nearly a week after his accident.
Speaking with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Kavan Markwood said he hasn't watched any video of the fall that left him motionless on the warning track. He reportedly described his injuries as "broken everything," but said he is expected to be released from Allegheny General Hospital in about a week.
From the Tribune-Review:
'I'm all right,' he said. 'I can't really sleep. I have a lot of back pain.'
Markwood reportedly added he was grateful for the donors to his GoFundMe, which was organized by his girlfriend's mother Jennifer Phillips and has raised more than $47,000 as of Wednesday afternoon.
The fall created a haunting incident at PNC Park, and some questions about how it happened have since been answered. Witnesses have reportedly said Markwood was excited the Pirates were rallying, leading to him taking his shirt off and pouring beer on himself before an Andrew McCutchen at-bat.
While video showing the fall from a distance went viral the night of the incident, a different video that surfaced earlier this week, taken from behind Markwood's front-row seat, reveals more about the incident. It shows a shirtless Markwood visibly energized, then he jumps up in reaction to McCutchen's double and lands with much of his body weight on the railing in front of him. He quickly loses balance and falls forward.
Kavan Markwood has begun therapy for his brain injury. (Photo by)
In a news conference Wednesday, AGH's chief medical officer Dr. Allan Philp said the 20-year-old Markwood sustained injuries to his brain, skull, spine, lungs and ribs, via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Despite that Philip said Markwood was doing very well, with much of the credit due to Markwood's youth and the quick medical response at PNC Park.
He reportedly said Markwood is able to stand, walk and respond to questions, and that he's already begun therapy for his brain injury, though he still has a long road ahead of him. Via the Post-Gazette:
'So although he's able to do activities of daily living, which is get up, walk to the bathroom, those kinds of things are painful,' Dr. Philp said. 'Even in a young, healthy person, it's going to take some time for those to heal. So he's going to be limited in any aggressive kind of physical activity until those bones heal.'
His cognitive progress will be 'harder to predict,' Dr. Philp said. 'He's made really remarkable progress, but he's not at a point where he's at his baseline yet. And whether that's going to take a week or a month or longer is really tough to tell.'
Markwood is a former first-team all-conference football player at South Allegheny High School, who went on to spend time on the rosters of Division II schools Walsh University and Wheeling University. Representatives of his teams and schools have spoken glowingly of his character throughout the aftermath of the incident.
Per the Tribune-Review, both of Markwood's parents died young. His aunt Juliette Och, however, is a nurse at Allegheny General Hospital and has called him the "epitome of strength," per the Post-Gazette. Och actually saw video of the incident the night it happened and only found out the next day it was her nephew. Markwood's sister Taryn has also reportedly been in communication with him.
Due to the viral nature of the incident, Phillips has urged for compassion in the bio of her GoFundMe:
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