American professional football player Kevin Everett broke his neck during a game lost to the Denver Broncos and paralyzed from the shoulders down. The unfortunate accident happened right after the second-half kickoff as he attempted what looked like a routine tackle of Domenik Hixon, but after the contact he instantly collapsed and remained frozen for about 15 minutes.

The doctors rushed to his aid tried an experimental technique that may save his life and even allow him to walk again, but it’s too early to tell if Buffalo Bills’ tight end will fully recover.

After performing surgery on the paralyzed football player, a team doctor made some somber comments.

"I told Kevin that the chances of a full neurological recovery were bleak." team doctor Dr. Andrew Cappuccino, said.

According to Cappuccino’s statement, Everett’s seemingly routine collision with Hixon crushed his third vertebra into his fourth, damaging his spinal cord, but due to quick action and an experimental procedure Dr, Green, who also performed surgery on the paralyzed player, was happy to say there is still hope for Everett:

"I think Kevin will be walking some day soon because of this."

According to Dr. Green the doctors that intervened quickly after the accident had happened lowered Everett's body temperature to prevent the injury from getting worse, more precisely they prevented his spinal cord form a permanent damage. Such a procedure hasn’t been done before.

Twelve years ago, actor Christopher Reeve suffered a similar injury after falling off a horse. Unfortunately, such a procedure wasn’t known then as the technology did not exist. After the accident he raised money for research on spinal cord injuries and the foundation he created financed the University of Miami's Project to Cure Paralysis.

Dr. Frederick Mueller, Director of the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina, oversees research of major spinal damage suffered by athletes. He said that is less than a one-in-100,000 chance of a football player suffering "some kind of catastrophic injury" like Everett did.

"The risk is not that high really," Mueller said. "But when it does happen…it's pretty traumatic really."