Pre-game BBQ Saturday, rifle raffle to benefit Hewston Coon
by Mark Hebert
It was last year about this time that then-kindergartener Hewston Coon, like any adventurous young lad, jumped from atop a piece of playground equipment at the Superior Elementary School to take flight, a la Superman.
Hewston Coon, with footballs stamped on either cheek, watches the Bobcat’s JV football team play St. Regis in Superior last
Saturday. “I bent my knee and landed on it and then hit it again on the railing,” said Hewston.
Tia Coon, Hewston’s mother, said that her son re-injured the knee later in the year – because boys will be boys – and yet again before he was taken to an orthopedic surgeon who told the Coons of the severity of the injury. Tia said that, because of Hewston’s age, he has a torn ACL and a lateral meniscus tear.
“He hurt it on the playground last November and it just never got any better. You just figure a child that age wouldn’t injure their knee to that extent,” said Tia.
So now Hewston, and his family, get to fly for real, this time to Boston to see one of the nation’s leading children’s surgeons. Tia said the doctor who will be performing the surgery -- Dr. Mininder Kocher – is the associate director of the division of sports medicine at Children’s Hospital in Boston.
In a New York Times article in February of this year, Dr. Kocker said that the injury like the one Hewston suffered is “the most common and most dreaded injury in professional sports.”
But Kocher also said in the article that the standard A.C.L. repair operation, with its drilling into the growth plate, may cause permanent damage to the still-growing bones of young children. After drilling, surgeons replace the torn ligament with a tendon taken from elsewhere in the body, like the hamstring, or from a cadaver. But if the drilling damages a child’s growth plate, the leg bone will not develop normally.
The Coon’s fly to Boston on November 16, and meet with Kocher the next day. Hewton’s surgery is scheduled for Tuesday. The family will then wait for Hewston to recover before heading back to Superior on Saturday. Tia said she estimates that the family will spend about $4,000 on room and board for the seven days in Boston, but added that the family has insurance that will cover most of the surgery.
“After that Hewston will need six months of therapy and we will have to travel back to Boston in six months for a follow up ,” she said. “And then to either Helena or Bozeman for routine follow-ups. It’s going to be a long haul.”
“We have to stay in Boston until that Saturday,” said Tia. “It’s going to be a long week.”
To help cover the cost of the travel expenses, Coon family friend Claudia Felstat has organized an event which will help the Coons out -- as well as filling some bellies. She said that she and a group of volunteers will set up shop in the 4H building at the Mineral County Fair Grounds this Saturday to coincide with the Bobcats football game BBQ sandwiches will be served – meat provided by Superior Meats – as well as cake and many other delicacies. The feed will start at 11 a.m. and run until there is no more food or until the game is over, whichever comes first.
Claudia said that the group will also be raffling off a rifle – tickets will be sold at Robin Billet’s Superior Mountain Mudd and John Kelly’s Farmers Insurance office (and don’t be surprised if you see Claudia on your doorstep sometime this week.) There is also talk of a set of luggage to be given away to one lucky raffle winner, as well as a senior portrait setting. Tickets for the raffle with be $5 each or five for $20.
So come to the Bobcats game to support the home team and stop by the 4H Building, fill up on primo BBQ sandwiches, buy a few raffle tickets and help out a super little boy.
###
It was last year about this time that then-kindergartener Hewston Coon, like any adventurous young lad, jumped from atop a piece of playground equipment at the Superior Elementary School to take flight, a la Superman.
Hewston Coon, with footballs stamped on either cheek, watches the Bobcat’s JV football team play St. Regis in Superior last
Saturday. “I bent my knee and landed on it and then hit it again on the railing,” said Hewston.
Tia Coon, Hewston’s mother, said that her son re-injured the knee later in the year – because boys will be boys – and yet again before he was taken to an orthopedic surgeon who told the Coons of the severity of the injury. Tia said that, because of Hewston’s age, he has a torn ACL and a lateral meniscus tear.
“He hurt it on the playground last November and it just never got any better. You just figure a child that age wouldn’t injure their knee to that extent,” said Tia.
So now Hewston, and his family, get to fly for real, this time to Boston to see one of the nation’s leading children’s surgeons. Tia said the doctor who will be performing the surgery -- Dr. Mininder Kocher – is the associate director of the division of sports medicine at Children’s Hospital in Boston.
In a New York Times article in February of this year, Dr. Kocker said that the injury like the one Hewston suffered is “the most common and most dreaded injury in professional sports.”
But Kocher also said in the article that the standard A.C.L. repair operation, with its drilling into the growth plate, may cause permanent damage to the still-growing bones of young children. After drilling, surgeons replace the torn ligament with a tendon taken from elsewhere in the body, like the hamstring, or from a cadaver. But if the drilling damages a child’s growth plate, the leg bone will not develop normally.
The Coon’s fly to Boston on November 16, and meet with Kocher the next day. Hewton’s surgery is scheduled for Tuesday. The family will then wait for Hewston to recover before heading back to Superior on Saturday. Tia said she estimates that the family will spend about $4,000 on room and board for the seven days in Boston, but added that the family has insurance that will cover most of the surgery.
“After that Hewston will need six months of therapy and we will have to travel back to Boston in six months for a follow up ,” she said. “And then to either Helena or Bozeman for routine follow-ups. It’s going to be a long haul.”
“We have to stay in Boston until that Saturday,” said Tia. “It’s going to be a long week.”
To help cover the cost of the travel expenses, Coon family friend Claudia Felstat has organized an event which will help the Coons out -- as well as filling some bellies. She said that she and a group of volunteers will set up shop in the 4H building at the Mineral County Fair Grounds this Saturday to coincide with the Bobcats football game BBQ sandwiches will be served – meat provided by Superior Meats – as well as cake and many other delicacies. The feed will start at 11 a.m. and run until there is no more food or until the game is over, whichever comes first.
Claudia said that the group will also be raffling off a rifle – tickets will be sold at Robin Billet’s Superior Mountain Mudd and John Kelly’s Farmers Insurance office (and don’t be surprised if you see Claudia on your doorstep sometime this week.) There is also talk of a set of luggage to be given away to one lucky raffle winner, as well as a senior portrait setting. Tickets for the raffle with be $5 each or five for $20.
So come to the Bobcats game to support the home team and stop by the 4H Building, fill up on primo BBQ sandwiches, buy a few raffle tickets and help out a super little boy.
###