USC RB Stafon Johnson Injured in Weight Lifting Accident

Football Fiends:

I hate reporting this kind of stuff but a USC player needs your prayers. Standout RB Stafon Johnson suffered a serious injury today in the weight room. He needs your prayers.

This isn’t about football. This is about the Trojan Family. This is about life. This is about a young man making a full recovery.

From ESPN:

Tailback Stafon Johnson was rushed to the hospital after dropping a weight on his throat in the weight room. The injury caused Johnson to start coughing up blood…He was subsequently rushed to the hospital.

That is all there is right now. When I hear more I will update this story.

Please send your thoughts and prayers his way!

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UPDATE: This is from USCRipsIt.

Tailback Stafon Johnson suffered a throat injury while weightlifting Monday morning and is undergoing surgery this afternoon.

Johnson, a senior from Compton, was bench-pressing with a spotter in Heritage Hall’s weight room when the bar slipped out of his right hand and fell at an angle onto his throat. USC’s athletic trainers and emergency personnel rushed to the scene, and Johnson was taken to a local hospital, where he’s currently undergoing surgery on his throat.

“It was an unfortunate accident and Stafon is getting great care right now,” Coach Pete Carroll said. “We don’t have a lot of information at this point and we’ll keep everyone updated, but our thoughts and prayers are with Stafon.”

Head strength and conditioning coach Chris Carlisle, who was within 10 feet of the incident, said he was shocked something like this could happen.

“I’ve seen players have the bar slip and fall onto their chest, but never in my 25 years of coaching have I heard of someone dropping a bar on their throat,” Carlisle said. “We’re fortunate he was being spotted.”

The bench press is commonly regarded as one of the safest exercises in the weight room, especially with a spotter, Carlisle said. An assistant strength and conditioning coach was spotting Johnson this morning.

Johnson’s recovery time from surgery is unknown at this time.

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UPDATE 2…check out this post from an ENT Surgeon  (Ear Nose and Throat) from WeAreSC.com

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Guys-
I’m board certified in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and also in Facial Plastic Surgery. I’ve seen dozens of these type of injuries over the years.

First of all, we should be grateful he is alive and that apparently there are no neurologic problems (stroke, spinal cord injury). He faces potentially a very long road ahead.

Bleeding indicates a break in the laryngeal or tracheal mucosa, and generally this is due to fracture of the cartilages. In young people, the cartilage isn’t calcified and it gives quite alot. But it can break.

Emergent surgery of this nature is usually due to one of two things—impending airway compromise (due to an expanding hematoma—collection of blood, collapse of airway, or even laryngeal nerve injury, or laryngeal-tracheal separation). In that case they will do a tracheostomy, probably with the patient 100 percent awake (these are not fun for the surgeon or the patient—I did three last month).

The other reason for surgery is to perform laryngofissure. The neck is opened up, and the broken laryngeal cartilage (if fractured) is repaired with sutures and titanium microplates.

Rarely do you know the injury ahead of time, as these patients are in extremis, and a CT scan is risky (loosing an airway and trach’ing a patient in the CT scanner is extremely unpleasant).

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Thanks to USCRipsIt, WeAreSC and The Conquest Chronicles