![At the bottom of the third inning, the Lions are still scoreless. Rowe stands at home plate, preparing to bat, while Vandenbrink stands off to the side as the next batter up. Despite having the bases loaded, the team was unable to score any runs. “It’s just the beginning of the season. We’re just going to be playing out best by June, [and] that’s where champions are,” Rowe said.](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/IMG_3077-1200x900.jpg)
![All smiles. The group poses for a photo with last year’s book, “This is Our House,” along with their award for third Best in Show. Meikle, who was an Editor-in-Chief for the yearbook last year as well, holds both and stands at the center of the group. “That was an amazing feeling, going and grabbing the third place award,” Meikle said. “All of it paid off. I cried so much over that book, being able to receive [the award] was one of the highlights of my high school career, it was like the coolest thing ever.”](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/8bookpose_philly-1200x800.jpg)
Many rumors have been flying around about what injury Italian exchange student Eduardo Russo, senior, who hails from Crema, Italy, sustained this past Saturday, April 6, on the rugby field. Russo was playing in the rugby game when an opponent tackled him high up on his body bringing him down by his head. With all his weight falling onto his head, Russo’s shoulder at first was the only thing that hurt.
“After a minute or so the pain went to my back then down to my feet,” Russo said.
People then began to touch his feet, at which point he couldn’t feel them touching his toes.
“ It really scared me at first when my feeling in my toes was gone,” Russo said.
An ambulance was then called to the scene, and since Russo was having trouble feeling most of his left side, they called in a helicopter to life flight Russo to Oregon Health and Science University.
“They were giving me a lot of painkillers and muscle relaxers,” Russo said. “ I nearly passed out on the flight to OHSU.”
Once at OHSU, they performed an x-ray to check for a broken neck/spine, which came out negative. Then they gave Russo a magnetic resonance imaging scan, which confirmed that his neck and spine had not sustained any serious injuries.
“At first I really scared because the doctors were talking about taking me into the operating room,” Russo recounts. “ I’m really happy nothing was wrong.”
The end prognosis was that Russo had sustained shoulder and neck contusion and a pinched nerve in his left shoulder, for which he’s in a sling at school for precautionary measures.
“And that was how my I spent my 12 hours [in the hospital] and $20,000 Saturday,” Russo joked. “ I got to go home that night which was also pretty nice.”
For medical costs, Russo is insured by both the rugby team and the company he came to America with.
Russo will be out of his sling once he can feel his shoulder again, and expects to be back in action again in a few weeks for the rugby team.
He encourages everyone to come watch the rugby team play Oregon City this Saturday at Delta Park at 12 p.m .
