Warning: This article contains discussion and video of serious injuries which some readers may find distressing.
A cheerleader who ‘blacked out’ mid-backflip suffered a horrendous injury in a stunt gone wrong.
Corey Martens, 29, was brought in last minute to perform in the halftime show of a football game between Morehead State against and University of St. Thomaan. Martens broke her neck as a result of the freak accident, which happened last month.
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A video of the incident shows her performing in the show alongside teammates of her 'dream team', with one managing to pull off a ‘back handspring up’.
Just moments later, Martens attempted the same, before shockingly blacking out mid jump.
She lands horribly on her head, which hits the ground with a crunch.
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Martens appears to break her neck on impact as her head snapped back underneath her.
The cheerleader stated that Morehead State in Kentucky, who were competing against University of St. Thomas, were her ‘dream team’ to cheerlead for.
She said of the incident: “I was not actually originally in it [the performance].
"But a bunch of people were missing - either because of injuries or because they were out of town, so I ended up jumping in to do it.
"When I went to throw the back handspring up, I ended up blacking out - which we brought down to not having eaten enough food and I had low iron levels.
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"It [blacking out] only lasted for a second but it happened at the worst time. My feet didn't leave the ground, and I didn't actually jump, I just landed straight on my head."
Warning: The following video shows the incident described above
Emergency services were called, and she was rushed to Claire Hospital, Morehead, Kentucky by ambulance.
Upon arriving at the hospital, she was rushed for CAT scans and X-Rays to confirm the extent of her injuries.
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She said of her injuries: “After the x-rays they found out I had a non-displaced C5 [vertebrae] fracture.
"It was definitely worrying. They told me that because it was non-displaced, that basically meant that it wasn't pushing on any of my nerves, and that's why I wasn't suffering from any neurological effects."
Martens has been cheerleading since she was 12, and stated she was ‘lucky’ that her injuries weren’t worse.
She said: “I feel very lucky because fractures between C4 and C6 [vertebrae] very commonly cause paralysation, and I was lucky that the break was far away from the nerves in that area.
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"But they [the doctors] wanted to make sure that I didn't move it because I'd also pulled all of the tendons and muscles around my neck, and it was really sore. They told me not to do any of my normal activity for the most part.
"I could walk but I had to leave the neck brace on 24/7 for two and a half weeks. I was allowed to take it off for small periods of time - when I was showering, or changing - but I still wore it when I was sleeping and anywhere else, I was going.
"It was scary at first, but after the first week they [the doctors] weren't worried about any neurological effects because if it hadn't shown up by then, it shouldn't anymore. I felt a lot better about it after that."
Michael Slavin