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NSI High Jump Champion Will Red Shirt
freshman year at Penn State
Kathy Messner on the mend after near fatal auto accident
Associated Press article June 30 | Frederick News Post Article June 29
August 20: Kathy
will wait until the spring semester to enroll at at Penn State and will red shirt her
freshman year, according to a fine article by Sheldon Shealer in the Frederick News Post. Kathy is
recuperating at her Thurmont MD home with only a neck brace and scars on her arm as
evidence of her accident. Kathy expects to compete again, at least in running
events. "My legs are fine, thank God," she told the News Post.
"I should be able to high jump, but not for a year or two."
July 21: Kathy
has gone home! She has a hospital bed and a wheel
chair; she has limited mobility and still a lot of pain -- but she is out of the hospital
and can see visitors on a limited basis.
July 5: Kathy remained in
critical but stable condition on a respirator, but her mother, Marie Messner, said Kathy
could move her arms and legs and was sitting up at times.
June 26, 1998
-- Kathy Messner, 18, National Scholastic Indoor high jump champion and one of Maryland's
alltime great prep track stars, broke her neck in an auto accident June 26, but may
compete again at Penn State University next year. Messner underwent 14 hours of
surgery at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.
According to the Associated Press June 30, neurosurgeon Dr. Amil Bethel said it
was "amazing" Messner had some function when she arrived at the hospital.
"Most people who have this injury are quadriplegic when they present."
Messner was stopped for a left turn near her home in Thurmont MD last June 26 when a
pickup truck rammed her from behind and flipped her into the path of an oncoming semi
tractor trailer. The truck ran over Messner's car.
Messner remained conscious and could move her arms and legs. In the surgery, a
piece of bone from her hip and a steel plate were used to fuse two vertebrae in her neck.
Dr. Bethel told the AP that Messner might recover well enough to compete in events
other than the high jump next season at Penn State, where Messner signed a national letter
of intent this spring. Messner was listed in critical but stable condition June 29.
Kathy Messner, 18, National Scholastic Indoor high jump champion in March at
Boston (5-9.25), was critically injured in a traffic accident Friday June 26.
Messner was stopped for a left turn near her Thurmont MD home when a truck rammed her from
behind, flipping her car in front of an oncoming semi-tractor trailer. She was
listed in critical but stable condition Sunday at R. Adams Crowley Shock Trauma Center in
Baltimore and was on a respirator.
The Catoctin HS senior was one of Maryland's all-time great female track
athletes with 12 individual state championships in three years, but she was knocked out of
this year's state outdoor meet by a hamstring injury in the Frederick County championships
at Middletown MD in May. Despite the injury, Messner signed a national letter of
intent with Penn State while on crutches the following week, and she returned to
competition in the AAU regional Junior Olympics championships a week ago at Horsham PA.
6/30/98 Frederick News-Post, Frederick MDMessner may compete
soon
by Associated Press
EMMITSBURG MD - An 18-year-old national high jump champion broke her neck in a car
accident that amazingly did not leave her paralyzed, her doctors said Monday.
The injury might keep Kathy Messner from high jumping this fall at Penn State, where
she has a full athletic scholarship, but she could recover well enough to compete in other
track and field events, said Dr. Amil Bethel, the neurosurgeon who operated on her spine
at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.
"It was amazing to us that she had some function" when Ms. Messner arrived at
the hospital Friday, Dr. Bethel said. "Most people who have this injury are
quadriplegic when they present."
Ms. Messner, a recent graduate of Catoctin High School in Thurmont, was in critical but
stable condition Monday evening. In addition to the neck injury, which required
doctors to fuse two vertebrae using a steel plate and piece of bone shaved from her hip,
she had a bruised lung, a ruptured spleen and cuts on her scalp, left forearm and left
foot.
Family members were confident she would recover.
"We've seen her down before and she's always come back, her mother, Marie Messner,
said Sunday. "We're counting on that spirit."
Ms. Messner was hurt Friday when her Ford Escort, which was stopped for a left-hand
turn off MD 140 near Emmitsburg, was rear-ended by a pickup and pushed into oncoming
traffic. A tractor-trailer ran over the car, according to the Frederick County
Sheriff's Office.
Ms. Messner won the girls' high jump at the National Scholastic Track & Field
Championship meet in March with a jump of 5-feet, 9.25-inches. She also had 12 state
track titles, and recently began competing again after another injury.
Last week she won an Amateur Athletic Union regional track and field title in Horsham
PA.
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Frederick MD 6/29/98Former
Catoctin athlete critical;
hopeful of recovery
from the Frederick News-Post,
Frederick MD, June 29, 1998, page 2.
By Julia Robb and John Cannon
Prominent former Catoctin High School athlete Kathy Messner is in critical
condition at R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore following a Friday accident,
but doctors believe she will not be paralyzed, according to Marie Messner, Kathy's mother.
Miss Messner, 18, who graduated from Catoctin this spring, can move her arms and
legs, her mother said, adding that Kathy is on a respirator.
Miss Messner, who won a national high jump championship in March and has 12
state track titles, recently began competing again after another injury. Last week
she won an AAU Regional Track and Field title, in Horsham, PA.
Miss Messner was driving a Ford Escort east on MD 140 near Tract Road when the
accident happened. She had stopped to make a left turn when another eastbound
vehicle, a pickup truck, struck Miss Messner's car in the rear, spun it around and sent it
across the center line where it was hit by a tractor trailer, sheriff's deputies said.
The tractor trailer ran over Miss Messner's car. She had to be freed by
emergency personnel.
Ms. Messner said her daughter has a full athletic scholarship from Penn State
University. And she's hoping her daughter will make it to school next fall because
"she's a fighter. We've seen her down before and she's always come back.
We're counting on that spirit. I just saw the car. It's a miracle
she's alive."
Doctors told Ms. Messner that the accident fused her daughter's fourth and
fifth vertebra, lacerated her spleen and left a deep gash on her left arm. During
surgery that lasted more than 14 hours, Ms. Messner said Kathy's doctors fused a bone from
her hip to her neck to replace a vertebrae and placed a steel plate in her neck.
Ms. Messner said she believes Kathy's father, Larry Messner, who died in 1994,
was with her and protecting her during the accident. Her father was a big track fan,
said Ms. Messner.
And she knows for sure her sister Ann was there. Ann Messner is
chief of the Emmitsburg Ambulance Co., and she heard her sister's accident from the
National Fire Academy. Ann Messner "went out there and saw a heap of rubble and
there sat her sister in there and Kathy said "Ann get me out of here," said Ms.
Messner, explaining Kathy never lost consciousness.
Miss Messner also asked her sister whether she would live, said Ms. Messner.
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Details in Frederick News Post article.
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