NORFOLK, Va. — A 16-year-old gymnast from Chesapeake is in the hospital after he fractured his neck and lost feeling in his legs in a fall during open gym a week ago.
That feeling has come back for Cody Bennett, a rising junior at Grassfield High School, and now hospital staff from Sentara Norfolk General Hospital are helping him learn to walk again.
He said last week he was warming up on the bars during open gym when he slipped and fractured two vertebrae in his neck. He said, though, that he’s never given up hope of getting back on the mat.
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“It was still mostly fear — what if everything I ever worked for was just over like that, but we’ll be back,” Bennett said.
He started gymnastics at a young age and has continued to compete throughout his life. He said he has formed a lot of friendships through the sport, many of whom have been in to visit him in the hospital.
“Feels like a second home, second family, I’m at the gym the same amount that I’m at home,” Bennett said.