What happens when your child’s favorite pastime lands them in the ICU? One player’s injury pushed her parents to advocate for change.
When sophomore Taylor Everson donned her Yale lacrosse jersey for a game against Stony Brook University earlier this year, she never imagined she’d be leaving in an ambulance with life-threatening injuries. Taylor is just one women’s lacrosse player who has been impacted by the sport becoming increasingly physical. Her story raises the question, Is women’s lacrosse really a non-contact sport?
Katie spoke with Taylor and her mother, Carolyn, about why they think the sport is overdue for change.
Taylor, you recently experienced a devastating injury during one of your lacrosse games. What happened?
On Saturday, February 25, 2023, we were playing Stony Brook University, which is always an intense matchup, but this game was particularly aggressive. At the end of the third quarter, a ball went down near the Stony Brook goal. I shot it and then one of the Stony Brook players cross-checked me, meaning she turned her stick horizontally and pushed it into my side. It’s supposed to be an illegal move, but the player who hit me wasn’t charged with a foul. She had been in my blind spot, so I was basically defenseless and went down immediately. It felt like I had been stabbed by a knife.
I tried to get back up and play the final two minutes of the game, but I realized something was wrong and went to the sidelines where my trainer brought me ice, thinking I may have hurt my ribs. My parents came down from the stands with the sense something was amiss. My coach saw the color had drained from my face and asked the trainer to bring me to the training room, where my parents demanded someone call an ambulance. Even though the field was five minutes away from the hospital, the ambulance got lost, and over an hour elapsed from the time I was injured to the time I got to the ER. A CAT scan showed that my left kidney was bleeding internally and was split in half. I ended up staying in the Stony Brook Trauma Center ICU for nine days before being transferred to Columbia Presbyterian, where I spent four more days. I had multiple complications including a partially collapsed lung, and an ileus because my intestines shut down.
Those 13 days must have been terrifying for you. What do you remember from the hospital stays?
It was crazy — I guess that’s the only way to describe it. I’ve been playing lacrosse since third grade and you almost expect certain injuries — like hurt ankles, wrists, knees, maybe a concussion at worst — but you don’t ever expect your internal organs to be messed up. It was painful and very scary. It was overwhelming.
Carolyn, for you as a mom, I can imagine you must have been pretty terrified, too.
We were. I think for us as parents, we were also in shock, to be honest with you. I stayed in the ICU with Taylor and would wake up in the middle of the night and would stare at her sleeping and would mourn what she might lose from this injury. She had been happy and adjusted and was loving Yale. And I would just sit there and think, how did this happen while playing a sport that she’s played for years? It was a deeply awful feeling. A parent’s worst nightmare.
Has this happened to other players?
Three other families who had experienced similar injuries reached out to us after. A former Stanford player was hit in very much the same way as Taylor and had a lacerated kidney, and there are two current players at Boston College who’d been injured — one had a lacerated stomach and the other had a lacerated bladder (the latter being from a high school lacrosse injury). So we’ve decided, really at Taylor’s leadership and request, to try to figure out how to raise awareness and make the game safer.
It’s interesting, if you Google women’s lacrosse, some sources will say that it’s considered a contact sport and others would say it’s not a contact sport.
Men’s lacrosse is defined as a contact sport — the players hit each other, it’s part of the game, but they wear a lot of protective gear. They wear helmets, chest protectors, rib guards, and gloves. It’s not perfect, but they wear some gear. Women’s lacrosse players only wear goggles. Taylor chooses to wear a helmet because she’s had multiple concussions, but the only requirement is goggles.
One of the other areas of change we’re pushing for is to have an ambulance and paramedics at every game, which most of the men’s games have. However, for women, it’s a decision that’s made by each school. So for example, at Duke, where Taylor’s twin Kennedy plays, there’s an ambulance and paramedics at every women’s lacrosse game. Stony Brook University did not have paramedics or an ambulance for the women’s lacrosse game against Yale.
Why is that?
Women’s lacrosse is supposed to be a game of skill and precision, not a game where people’s kidneys and stomachs, and bladders get lacerated. There’s a lack of clarity on some of the rules, which means players and coaches are pushing the envelope and getting more aggressive. And then you also have a staff problem. These are often part-time officials doing this to supplement their income, and they’re complaining that the rules aren’t that clear and the game has become faster and they’re not able to make split-second decisions, so a lot of fouls don’t get called. This all contributes to an escalating problem in the game. If players don’t get called for dangerous behavior, the coaches push them to keep playing aggressively and the next thing you know, the game is out of control. That’s what happened in the game when Taylor was injured.
What are you all envisioning for the future of lacrosse?
The sport is at a crossroads. They either need to define it more like men’s lacrosse and let the women hit each other but have them wear protective gear, or it needs to be what it originally was intended to be: a non-contact sport.
I’ve had high-ranking officials at different organizations all tell me that the game is at a very precarious point and change needs to happen, but no one’s leading the charge.
So we’re getting ready to launch a campaign called Safeguard Women’s Lacrosse. We’re going to be pushing for some very specific changes that we think have to be made at the highest level. We want to do everything we can to make sure what happened to Taylor and those other players doesn’t happen to someone else.
Have you heard from the team or the player since this happened?
No, nothing. The coach for Stony Brook, Joe Spallina, never even stopped in the training room to check on Taylor. He apparently has texted Taylor’s coach, but he never reached out or checked on Taylor directly. And the player has also been silent. The athletic director at Stony Brook said that this was not a foul and this was a normal course of play.
Taylor, how are you feeling about the sport and do you think you’ll be able to play again?
I’m hopeful that in nine to 12 months, physically speaking, I’ll make a full recovery. I’ll get to the point where I’m eligible to play again. It’s more the mental and emotional side of things that I’m working through. And granted, I haven’t had a lot of time since the injury, so I don’t know if I’ve fully processed the injury and also the ramifications that have come as a result. But I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to get to a point where I feel confident and I can go back on the field.
