Gibson Southern High School history teacher Kyle Brasher ended his summer in a different situation than he would have thought. An accident happened when he and his wife, Kristin, took their oldest son, Cameron, to the Princeton pool for a friend’s birthday party.
“I was jumping off the diving board for the eighth time that day,” Kyle Brasher said.
He injured his quad tendon after landing wrong from the initial jump. The tendon he injured was what holds the kneecap together to the thigh muscle. The muscle had split in half and his knee tore and split apart causing it to slide down in the space.
“Typically these happen to like 55 to 60 year old men, so I’m like 20 years ahead of the average person,” Kyle Brasher said.
At first he said he did not feel any pain, which looking back now, he thought was very odd from what he would have imagined. Kyle ended up getting out of the pool by himself, not expecting anything to be wrong. He ended up falling to the ground, and when his leg was straight, Kyle had no pain at all. But, when moving his leg, sudden movements were painful for him.
Kristin watched the accident happen, and she was not expecting anything out of the ordinary from his previous seven jumps.
“I just figured the diving board was wet and he slipped,” Kristin said. “I did not realize he was injured. I noticed he was hurt when he was struggling to get out of the pool. Once he tried to walk and then fell to the ground again, I knew it was a serious injury, as he was unable to bear weight on his leg after that.”
After surgery, Kyle was in the most pain for roughly the first four days. He was in a straight brace for 10 days, which his wife said was the hardest since he could not do anything by himself. She had to take care of him plus their four children.
The next six weeks Kyle wore a bendable brace, which allowed him to have a little more freedom. He came back to start his school year after being out the first four days. Kyle began his 14th year teaching unlike any other in his career.
“The hardest part initially had to be teaching from a wheelchair for the first week or so,” Kyle said. “I like to be as active as I can in the classroom, roaming up and down the aisles and checking on everyone to see how they are doing. So, just being inactive was difficult for me at first.”
After being released from the wheelchair, Kyle was able to go on crutches, which still was not the ideal situation.
After the bendable brace was on for six weeks, he was able to walk around a little bit, a good thing for someone who was eager to be active again. However, Kyle has to be careful with walking because he has scar tissue built up in his knee. He ended up being able to do more day-to-day activities after the six weeks were complete, being relatively back to normal.
As the head coach of the Lady Titan basketball team, Kyle had to tweak the girls’ fall workouts and run them a little differently because of his restrictions. He could not demonstrate drills, which was different for him to get used to.
“Fall workouts have been a bit different this year with Coach Brasher’s injury,” said senior girls basketball player Lydia Maurer. “He can no longer run up and down the court with us and is restricted from showing us drills.”
Kyle’s full time to heal is 12 weeks, but it could take six to 12 months for him to be able to run again. Both he and his wife have agreed he has healed faster than they expected. As he gets stronger on his feet, Kyle is working to be back to full strength and have no restrictions in his daily life.
