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Basketball teammates help girl with amnesia

posted by ...Because I Played Sports
Wednesday, June 3, 2009 at 6:09pm CDT

Just saw this story on ABC’s World News. It’s a good one. Good enough to share it with you.

It’s about a girl named Kayla Hutchinson, who, at the age of 19 as a student-athlete at Walla Walla Community College, collided with a teammate during a basketball practice and suffered a concussion (very common).

A few days later, however, she started losing her memory, didn’t know where she was, and had responses similar to that of a toddler. She didn’t know where she was, and couldn’t remember anything from the 19 years of her life. Memories of vacations, graduation and holidays were all gone. On top of all of this, she couldn’t do things like make her lunch or get to class.

Who was there to help? Her teammates.

Hutchinson’s roommates, all female athletes, started recognizing the problem as soon as Hutchinson returned back to her downtown apartment. Hutchinson couldn’t feel her arms and didn’t remember her roommates’ names.

Her basketball coach was equally concerned.

“When I recruit these kids, I make a promise to their parents to take care of them, but you never think it’s going to be this. Every year I get 15 new children. Kayla is like a daughter. Every day when I wake up, my first thought is How’s Kayla?”

When the accident occurred, Kayla’s parents wanted to take her home to Idaho. But, as this news report on KomoNews.com says,

“they found a network of support so tightly woven around their daughter that to remove her would have been detrimental, they believed.”

Hutchinson’s teammates, coach, roommates and professors all helped to get her back on track. Last year, she was released to participate in most of the basketball practice drills. She’s writing and reading again.

If you missed World News, you can watch this again on ABC’s Nightline at 11:35pm ET for the full story.