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Monett, Mo. — The entire experience was foreign to Cameron Cody.
There he was, laying in a hospital bed four hours from home.
The Monett teen could overhear his parents and doctors talking.
“I could lose the leg,” kept echoing in Cody’s mind.
Hours earlier, the Monett junior was suiting up for another season of Cubs football. His opening kickoff was quickly returned by Lamar. The Tiger player angled toward the far sideline and away from the Monett special teams.
“All I remember is he cut,” Cody said, “I planted and then felt the pain.”
“He’s not coming up,” Cody’s father, Rick said. “He laid there for about five minutes, and then they said, ‘will the parents of Cameron Cody come on down to the field,’ then your stomach drops.”
Cameron’s shin was shattered. An ambulance rushed him to Springfield. But doctors quickly redirected Cody’s severe case to Kansas City; a specialist would have to take it from here.
Because of his condition, they couldn’t fly Cody to Kansas City.
“I stopped breathing twice on the way up there,” Cody said thanks to the mix of medication of trauma. “It caused a lot of bad things to happen.”
Cameron had three breaks to the top of his shin bone along with his growth plate. The fracture cut the supply of blood to his foot; amputation was mentioned if the situation wasn’t remedied soon.
“They had to open my leg to release the bad blood,” Cody said about his first couple of surgeries in Kansas City.
They cut slits down his calf to drain the blood. Once that was done, they did it again. Then again. Four cuts to release the pressure and remove the pooled blood.
Finally stable, doctors were able to operate on Cody’s tibia. It took nine screws and a plate to form the top of his shin bone.
Following two weeks in the hospital, and knowing his leg was safe, Cameron’s attention turned to sports.
“I love sports. I don’t want that to be the reason I couldn’t play anymore,” Cody said. “I’m not giving up on anything.”
Cody returned to his soccer team. A goaltender since he was in grade school, it was as if he didn’t miss a season.
“At first we were like, is he going to adapt,” Monett soccer coach Cristobal Villa asked. “He missed a big gap; his junior year, that’s a lot.”
“At first, diving to my right side was hard,” Cody said. “I had to get over it.”
And he did. Cameron helped Monett to it’s fifth-straight, district title, and their first trip to the state final four.
“It’s a blessing he can come back,” Villa said.
You’d think one sport off a shattered shin would be enough… Not for Cameron.
During the spring, Cody would line-up field goal tries on the Monett artificial turf. But it wasn’t coming as easy as he hoped.
“When I first started kicking, I couldn’t get the ball a foot off the ground.”
Monett’s football coach, Derrek Uhl, kept challenging Cameron to try another field goal, then another. Emotionally exhausted, finally, the splintered leg split the uprights.
“I thought, hmm, maybe I could do this,” Cameron said.
“As parents you hesitate; both sports,” Rick said. “You just have to think, he can’t break that leg again… can he?”
Cameron’s lively leg earned a first team, all conference kicker honor.
All of these postseason games and accolades aren’t what Cameron is most proud of, but rather the road to his goals that others watched along the way.
“That motivates you a lot,” Cameron said. “To inspire people and show people you can come back.”
“He’s amazed us and so proud,” Cameron’s father said.
Cody thinks his leg is stronger following the surgery.
