Bills' TE Everett has minor surgery to relieve neck pain

Apr/09/08 08:12 PM Filed in: Kevin Everett
KevinEverett
BUFFALO, N.Y.: Kevin Everett is recovering after having minor surgery this week to relieve pain in his neck, which was related to the severe spinal cord injury that nearly left the Buffalo Bills tight end paralyzed last September.

"He's doing OK," Eric Armstead said Wednesday. Armstead is an attorney and associate of Everett's agent, Brian Overstreet.

The operation, performed at a Buffalo hospital, was initially scheduled for Tuesday, but pushed up to Monday, forcing Everett to cancel an appearance at a news conference. Everett was in town to announce a golf tournament and tailgate party scheduled for early July to benefit his newly established foundation to advance spinal cord injury research.

Everett was initially paralyzed from the neck down while attempting to make a tackle in the Bills' season opener on Sept. 9. He is now walking on his own since being released from a Houston rehabilitation facility in November.

Orthopedic surgeon Andrew Cappuccino, who has treated Everett since he was hurt, performed the most recent surgery. He termed the latest operation as a "a very minor procedure," in an interview with Buffalo's WIVB-TV.

"Over the course of the last few months, the parts below his injured area, just one level, became loose and needed a very minor procedure to shore them up, to make them stable so he wouldn't have neck pain," Cappuccino said.

Cappuccino did not return several messages left for him by The Associated Press.