Article - Taylor Everson's Extremely Painful Lacrosse Career
An article detailing how a lacrosse athlete’s life-threatening injury sparked urgent debate and called for stricter safety rules in women’s lacrosse.
Knives were being stabbed into me”: Sports World Shocked as College Lacrosse Athlete Reveals Extremely Painful Fate.
Taylor Everson, a Yale Sophomore who suffered a ruptured kidney and severe internal bleeding in a women’s lacrosse game, is now contemplating her future in the sport.
Doctors say that the cross-check hit caused her kidney to split and left her with extreme internal bleeding, which required multiple surgeries. Everson was hit when an opponent player cross-checked her on the field.
A cross-check in lacrosse is a check applied with the portion of the stick when held horizontally between the hands. Women’s lacrosse, unlike men’s, is a non-contact sport that deems the cross-check as an illegal move in this sport.
"The ball went down, and I went to go grab it and I shot it and a girl kind of came in my blind spot and cross-checked me in the side," Everson told ESPN. "It felt like knives were being stabbed into me."
Although Everson suffered several ankle injuries and three concussions in the past that led her to wear a helmet on the field (unlike men’s lacrosse), she said she has never experienced anything like she did on Feb. 25 at Stony Brook Field, New Jersey.
“About 90 minutes elapsed between the time of the injury and when an ambulance took her to the Stony Brook Trauma center, which is less than a mile from the lacrosse field”, recalled Everson’s mother, Carolyn Everson. She also highlighted the absence of an EMT and an ambulance on the field, which left many parents agitated at the organization of this sport.
Everson’s injury went unnoticed by the two physicians who were staffing the field, since there was neither a foul was called nor was the game stopped. Once her Yale trainer requested that a doctor examine her, she was taken to the nearby hospital for further evaluation. After a week of intense examinations, she was transferred to New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Everson has now lost 15 pounds and is working on regaining her strength. While her lacrosse career is uncertain, it has sparked a
Following Everson’s injury on Feb 25, two major organizations of the sport have come together to reshape the rules of women’s lacrosse.
"We are kind of at a crossroads," she said after her injury spurred a debate on the safety of the women’s lacrosse game. Officials from the NCAA and IWLCA are banding together to discuss the rules and regulations of women’s lacrosse. Making women’s lacrosse safer is a clear motive by the organization responsible; however, there seems to be growing frustration that high-contact moves are not being called out.