USC RB Stafon Johnson in hosptial after weightroom accident

[brian cushing]

BREAKING NEWS: Stafon Johnson suffers throat injury
By Ben Malcolmson on September 28, 2009 3:57 PM | No Comments
Tailback Stafon Johnson suffered a throat injury while weightlifting Monday morning and is undergoing surgery this afternoon.

Johnson, a senior from Compton, was bench-pressing with a spotter in Heritage Hall's weight room when the bar slipped out of his right hand and fell at anangle onto his throat. USC's athletic trainers and emergency personnel rushed to the scene, and Johnson was taken to a local hospital, where he'scurrently undergoing surgery on his throat.

"It was an unfortunate accident and Stafon is getting great care right now," Coach Pete Carroll said. "We don't have a lot of information atthis point and we'll keep everyone updated, but our thoughts and prayers are with Stafon."

Head strength and conditioning coach Chris Carlisle, who was within 10 feet of the incident, said he was shocked something like this could happen.

"I've seen players have the bar slip and fall onto their chest, but never in my 25 years of coaching have I heard of someone dropping a bar on theirthroat," Carlisle said. "We're fortunate he was being spotted."

The bench press is commonly regarded as one of the safest exercises in the weight room, especially with a spotter, Carlisle said. An assistant strength andconditioning coach was spotting Johnson this morning.

Johnson's recovery time from surgery is unknown at this time.

USCRipsIt will have more information as it becomes available

 

[tsamshox]

Damn...that's gotta be at least 225 on the bench i'm assuming...hopefully he can recover.

 

[doublejs07]

Originally Posted by Brian Cushing

BREAKING NEWS: Stafon Johnson suffers throat injury
By Ben Malcolmson on September 28, 2009 3:57 PM | No Comments
Tailback Stafon Johnson suffered a throat injury while weightlifting Monday morning and is undergoing surgery this afternoon.

Johnson, a senior from Compton, was bench-pressing with a spotter in Heritage Hall's weight room when the bar slipped out of his right hand and fell at an angle onto his throat. USC's athletic trainers and emergency personnel rushed to the scene, and Johnson was taken to a local hospital, where he's currently undergoing surgery on his throat.

"It was an unfortunate accident and Stafon is getting great care right now," Coach Pete Carroll said. "We don't have a lot of information at this point and we'll keep everyone updated, but our thoughts and prayers are with Stafon."

Head strength and conditioning coach Chris Carlisle, who was within 10 feet of the incident, said he was shocked something like this could happen.

"I've seen players have the bar slip and fall onto their chest, but never in my 25 years of coaching have I heard of someone dropping a bar on their throat," Carlisle said. "We're fortunate he was being spotted."

The bench press is commonly regarded as one of the safest exercises in the weight room, especially with a spotter, Carlisle said. An assistant strength and conditioning coach was spotting Johnson this morning.

Johnson's recovery time from surgery is unknown at this time.

USCRipsIt will have more information as it becomes available

I don't get how this can happen....unless he was in the process of racking his weights and just eased up before the bar was actually on therack.....

 

[wraith aka invincible]

i wonder if he just lost his grip and it slipped out i remember deloading on one side making the bar flip.

 

[TheGift23]

Poor guy...just thinking about it is

 

[wawaweewa]

It didn't necessarily have to be too much weight. There's a reason why the open/thumbless grip is nicknamed the "suicide" grip.

As someone else stated, if the bar slips there's nothing that the spotter can do.

 

[guttagetsbusy]

Am I the only one who can sorta feel the pain too from reading this story?

UGH

Get well soon

 

[75 partly cloudy]

Hope he gets well.

My favorite Trojan right now.

 

[jimmybeanz]

Originally Posted by PhilBalla09

hope he's alright.

 

[craftsy21]

I hate when spotters try to grab the bar from the top. I was always taught to keep your hands underneath the bar when spotting, but maybe that's not howit's taught everywhere... still, it just seems silly to think you can help somebody keep a bar from landing on them if you're trying to snatch it fromabove should it slip out of their grip.

hope dude is alright though.

 

[livemyreality]

I do hope he recovers fully and has a chance to play again.

 

[mblackmon]

dam hope he recovers. i'm only using dumbells on the bench for thenext few months

 

[grusumm18]

Originally Posted by tSamShoX

Damn...that's gotta be at least 225 on the bench i'm assuming...hopefully he can recover.

225 is high school

sj is a beast, has to be closer to 430 than 225

 

[cragmatic]

I dont understand how the guy in that vid can just drop it on his neck like that on lift off... unless he just straight got up and had no idea how much hecould lift.

I mean when I've maxed out I've put 10-15 lbs to much on the bar... and it comes down a little faster than normal.. but I can still control it and pu**** a little bit...

dude must have had NO idea how much he could bench.

As far as Johnson.. IDK what happened but i hope he can recover.. I have had instances where my arm gives out mid bench and its scary as hell, only happens tome with dumbbells however

 

[scoopem]

Originally Posted by grusumm18

Originally Posted by tSamShoX

Damn...that's gotta be at least 225 on the bench i'm assuming...hopefully he can recover.

225 is high school

sj is a beast, has to be closer to 430 than 225

in season... i doubt he was lifting anything over 300

 

[aceofjays]

Crazy. Either he was lifting without his thumbs around the bar. Or, his thumb gave out.

 

[Johnny_Cakes]

It makes me wince to read it. I've never tried the suicide grip, and now I'm less inclined to do so

 

[statis22]

Hope he pulls through

 

[TheGodFresco]

this story got me kinda shook to lift tomorrow

 

[div1lbc]

Scary stuff, hope he's alright.

 

[rockforlight]

Will this open the door for Marc Tyler?

 

[ooiron manoo]

fter practice today, Coach Carroll spoke about the injury suffered by Stafon Johnson while working on the bench press.

Carroll said that he was going through his normal Monday workout and was being spotted by a member of the strength and conditioning staff. We had heard earlier that Johnson was working with a weight of 275 pounds.

Johnson was alert when he was taken from campus in an ambulance, although he could not talk at the time. He is currently at California Hospital and Carrol did not know if he was out of surgery yet. Carroll did reiterate that this is indeed a serious situation.

The best news so far is that one of Johnson's family members said that they were told by doctors that the situation is repairable.

USC running back Stafon Johnson is still in surgery at California Hospital Medical Center near downtown. His condition was "critical but stable" as of about 7:20 tonight, according to a hospital spokesperson.

Friends and family of Johnson have gathered at the hospital, waiting for him to return from surgery which began about five hours ago.

Johnson was injured this morning while lifting weights at the school.

The senior from Dorsey High was just starting a set of bench press lifts when he apparently lost control of the bar and it landed on his neck. He was reportedly spitting up blood and was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where surgery began sometime around 2 p.m., according to family friend John Eatman, a former high school teammate.

Eatman was among about a dozen friends and family members gathered in hospital waiting room this evening. "Right now we don't know anything," Eatman said. "We're just hoping he's all right."

Johnson's mother, Kim Mallory, was at the hospital but declined comment through a family spokesperson.

In a news release posted on the USC football web site, Chris Carlisle, USC's strength and conditioning coach, said such an accident was rare. "I've seen players have the bar slip and fall onto their chest, but never in my 25 years of coaching have I heard of someone dropping a bar on their throat," the coach said.

Carlisle, who was within feet of Johnson when the accident occurred, said an assistant strength and conditioning coach was acting as a "spotter" for the player. No other details were available, and Carlisle was not made available to the media after today's practice.

Coach Pete Carroll called the incident "an unfortunate accident, adding that "our thoughts and prayers are with Stafon.

Johnson, who has been something of a goal-line specialist this season, leads USC with five touchdowns. He also is the team's second-leading rusher with 157 yards in 32 carries, a 4.9 yards-per-carry average.

 

[phatpharmer456]

espn is reporting 275lbs... two plates and a quarter on each side.

honestly, the only possible way I can imagine that the bar fell on his throat was that he thought he racked it the bar after a set and in fact did not. this isthe only point in the lift where the bar is even remotely close to the throat area.

in any case, sad story... what a freak accident?

 

[ddot7]

Hopefully his left hand was able to support a decent amount of the weight, making the impact a little less. It says the bar hit his throat at an angle. If 275lbs hit his throat flush, that'd be brutal...it makes me kinda cringe either way though.

Good luck to the kid.

 

[Sam Darnold Heisman #8]

according to his dad hes still in surgery having his vocal cords reconstructed. hopefully all goes well.