A Closer Look - Season 2 (Samantha Peka)
Injuries are a part of sports. Student-athletes never think about being injured when they play because it would change the way they play.
Freshman softball player Samantha Peka was wrapping up a practice in a sport she was a part of in 2008. Like any other day, she was doing things that came naturally to her, but she was thrown for a loop on August 31, 2008.
Although the Grovetown, Ga., native batted over .400 twice, was a two-time all-region honoree and an all-county selection at Evans H.S., Peka grew up participating in a variety of sports, including one that is fast paced and is a bit out of the ordinary for some – barrel racing.
Peka wrapped up the Sunday afternoon like any other—practicing racing. She was on a new horse this time and was breaking in a friend’s saddle. Peka had ridden the horse a couple of times without any issues so she thought it would be no big deal.
On this day, her life changed dramatically in a blink of an eye.
“It was my time to ride at the end of practice,” Peka said. “I went around the first barrel fine and did not have an issue going around the second barrel. As soon as I got to the third barrel, the horse started bucking. Since there was oil on the saddle, I couldn’t get a grip. I was thrown and I hit the horn on the saddle.”
Peka hit the ground at an awkward angle, landing on her head. She was momentarily knocked out and was later told the horse had stepped on her.
“I was moving weird, but I wanted to get back on the horse,” Peka said. “My dad was halfway through the fence when I came to. I wasn’t sure what was happening at that moment because I started going into shock.”
One of the trainers held her head and an ambulance was called.
“People had to go get the ambulance because of the back road it had missed trying to get to me,” Peka stated. “They put me on the stretcher and took me to the hospital. The medical staff had me strapped to the stretcher so all I could see was the ceiling.
“They got me to one of the rooms and two minutes later, I started to feel the pain,” Peka continued. “I was crying and was freaked out because I was strapped down through all the X-rays and cat scans, which lasted 2.5 hours.”
Once all the tests were completed, Peka was unstrapped by the staff and she stopped crying.
Doctors looked at the x-rays and let her go home for the evening. With friends in town, Peka’s family put her in a room closer to her parents and she fell asleep almost immediately.
The following morning, the hospital called back and said she broke her C-1 vertebrae, which is the vertebrae that the skull sits on.
“When they called, I had to go back to the hospital,” Peka stated. “They gave me an adult-sized neck brace and every time I’d sit down, the brace would slide up to my nose.
“The doctors came in and told me I had broken my neck,” Peka said. “I was in a hard brace for the next six weeks and for the six weeks following that, I was not allowed to do anything.”
Throughout the three-month process, doctors were surprised to see Peka was healing as fast as she was – essentially ahead of schedule.
At the end of the three months, Peka started doing the things she loved doing once again, including playing basketball the day she was released.
“They told me I couldn’t do anything dangerous, to be careful on trampolines, etc.,” Peka stated. “Other than that, I was cleared to go back and have a normal life.”
In the time since her accident, Peka has had to make return trips to the doctor from time to time because she still has pain. Laced with arthritis in the neck and back, doctors say that sometime in the next 20 years, Peka will need to have her C-1 vertebrae and C-2 vertebrae fused together.
Due to the injury, Peka is unable to fully turn her head to the right and she suffers from arthritis. That has not deterred her from being on the field and pushing through the pain, and she has not allowed herself to think about the possibility of an injury. On February 7 she will be excited about reaching a goal. Through her hard work and determination, Peka will be able to reap the rewards of a lengthy process and be able to participate in her first collegiate game as a student-athlete.
