Eldon teen seriously injured at football practice

A teen is recovering after he received a serious injury during football practice at Eldon High School on Wednesday.

According to the district, Junior Hunter Bushnell was practicing when he “received a hard hit.” The district said coaches followed proper safety procedure and for precautionary reasons called for emergency personnel assistance.

Bushnell was taken to the hospital, where doctors found he had broken the C5 vertebrae in his neck. He was “always conscious and breathing appropriately” but had extensive surgery overnight.

He is out of surgery and doing well, but friends said Thursday he is apparently paralyzed from the chest down and said doctors anticipate knowing if it will be permanent in a few days when the swelling goes down.

“He’s in real good spirits,” said a friend.

The school posted on its Facebook page that Bushnell displayed “amazing skills in academics, architecture, band and athletics.”

“In an effort to help the family with immediate needs and medical costs, we will be taking up a collection at tonight’s home volleyball game, as well as at tomorrow night’s Homecoming football game. A T-shirt fundraiser is also being planned. More details will be released soon.”

The business manager for Eldon School District, Sarah Rader, released the following information:

“We are in the process of creating an account for Hunter. It will be completely active Friday morning at Central Bank in Eldon. You can go in to make a deposit or mail a donation to:
Benefit for Hunter Bushnell
Central Bank
611 East North
Eldon, MO 65026″