Georgia high school wrestler suffers broken neck in ‘freak accident’ at state championships

A Georgia high school wrestler is facing a long recovery after he suffered a broken neck in a “freak accident” during a state championship tournament earlier this week. 

Dominic Haines, a Jefferson High School senior, suffered a broken neck in the final seconds of his quarterfinal match of the GHSA Traditional Wrestling State Championships in Macon, Georgia, on Thursday. 

Assistant wrestling coach Matthew Seaman called it a “freak accident,” telling FOX 5 Atlanta that it happened after his opponent performed a legal takedown. 

“It’s a heartbreaking situation all in all for both sides, obviously for us, but definitely for this opponent who did absolutely nothing wrong,” he told the station.

“This has been years in the works for him,” Seaman added. “Dom’s come up through the youth program at Jefferson, the middle school program, and the high school program; this is a true family. This was his year, everything was coming together.” 

Dominic’s father, Zach Haines, provided updates about his son’s condition in a series of Facebook posts. 

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He said after the accident, Dominic had “no feeling from the shoulders down.” 

Dominic underwent surgery on Thursday, which his father said went “according to plan.”

In his latest update on social media, Haines said his son has shown positive signs of recovery with some feeling in his lower half. Dominic will undergo another surgery later this week “to fuse the vertebrae from the back since the muscles and ligaments were all completely torn,” his father said in a recent update.

Haines said if his son continues to progress, he could be transferred to a rehabilitation center in a week. 

A GoFundMe campaign for Dominic has raised over $62,000 as of Tuesday. 

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