COEUR D’ALENE, Id. — 17-year-old Jackson Drum is a Minnesota kid with a hockey dream. ‘Drummer’, as he’s known by his teammates, left home to chase that dream; making the 1,218-mile journey from his hometown of Alexandria, Minnesota to Couer d’Alene.
He earned a roster spot as a defenseman for the 17U Couer d’Alene Hockey Academy—donning number 97.
“He loved the sport of hockey,” Jackson’s head coach Aaron Azevedo told us. “Everything that he could get from the game, he was going to make the most of it.”
As the season was winding down, the team traveled to Vancouver, B.C. for a hockey tournament. Five minutes into the second period, Jackson buried a goal to pull his team to within one.
Ten minutes later, his life would change.
“Jackson had hit the boards at a weird angle and hadn’t been moving,” said Ben Albers, a close friend of Jackson’s. Albers plays for the U18 CDA Academy; his teammates watched Jackson’s game on their phones when they saw the incident.
‘Drummer’ was racing after a loose puck alongside an opposing player; the two collided, and Jackson lost an edge and fell awkwardly into the boards.
The 17-year-old was unable to move or breathe.
“My immediate reaction was to just pray for him,” Albers said.
First responders raced onto the ice to give Jackson oxygen and stabilize him. Immediately, they sent him to a Vancouver-area hospital where he underwent emergency surgery.
Doctors fused his C1 and C2 vertebrae, telling Jackson’s family this is an injury people don’t usually survive.
A catastrophic injury. But Jackson is far from alone in his recovery journey.
“Me and three other of my teammates who were close with him got to go in there and speak with him,” Albers told us with a smile. “Throw around some jokes and lift his spirits.”
Albers, a towering defenseman, was aptly given the nickname ‘Big Tree’ by Jackson, a running joke that Albers brought into his hospital room.
No one knew what the road ahead looked like. Jackson was unable to breathe or eat on his own. He lost 35 pounds within the first few weeks of the accident.
But miraculously, he moved his left leg, a remarkable feat for an injury of this magnitude.
“When he first got injured, he was at the ‘A Class’ and that’s zero movement from the neck down,” said Albers. “But now he’s at a C. And from what I’ve heard, someone with the same injury, it took her two years to get to C and it took him two weeks.”
Jackson can also breathe for periods on his own without the help of a CPAP machine. There’s still a long way to go in this recovery process, but Jackson is optimistic to one day lace up the skates, and get back to his true love.
“[Jackson] wants to put his skates back on. He loved the game,” Azevedo told us.”He’s a great kid, a great individual he’s going to make the most of whatever is in front of him.”
His story is turning heads across the country.
Friends and strangers alike have fundraised more than 100,000 dollars for his medical expenses.
Jackson’s mother, Erica, said a few NHL players from the Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks have visited him.
On Senior Night, ‘Drummer’s’ team honored him by hanging his jersey above the bench and setting up a station for teammates and the community to write him letters of support.
Jackson was dealt a traumatic injury. But ‘Drummer’ is a fighter.
He’s a hockey player after all.
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