HOT SPRINGS — Kasey Burgener is an example of a high-achieving Catholic teenager in Arkansas.
Burgener, a member of St. Mary Church in Hot Springs, graduated May 21 from Garland County’s Cutter Morning Star High School. During her senior year, she was captain of the cheerleading squad, choreographing the dance routines, choosing the music and leading the cheers. She played clarinet in the marching band, which required her to go from cheering on the sidelines at football games to marching with the band during the half-time show. At graduation, she gave a speech as one of three valedictorians. Her grade point average was 4.1, which included four Advanced Placement classes.
She did all of this with a broken back.
During a tumbling class at her training gym in July 2008, Burgener fell awkwardly and broke two vertebrae in the middle of her back. Her mother, Phyllis, who was the gym at the time of the fall, said there was so much impact “you knew it was bad.” Phyllis Burgener called 911 “and I immediately began praying,” she said.
When Burgener’s coach asked her if she could feel her feet and legs, “she couldn’t because she was just in so much pain. She was having trouble breathing because of the pain and I had to get down face to face and tell her ’breathe.’ The whole time I was praying ’please don’t let her be paralyzed,’” Phyllis Burgener said.
The ambulance took the then 17-year-old to St. Joseph Medical Center, where Phyllis Burgener works as a dietitian.
After four days in the hospital, Kasey Burgener was sent home in a back brace, with prescriptions for muscle relaxants and “the biggest bottle of pain relievers I have ever seen,” Phyllis Burgener said. The back brace was a part of her daughter’s life for the next three months. While wearing the brace, she could not shower. Movement was difficult and she could not bend or pick anything up.
Yet when Cutter Morning Star Schools started classes in August, Burgener did not miss a day.
Of her graduating class of 50 students, most of them have been together for years. “When I went back to school, my friends were a big help. I couldn’t carry anything, not even a purse. Sitting or standing for very long was painful, so a lot of times, I lay on the floor during class.”
Her mother added, “During August, it was so hot and the brace was really uncomfortable. When Kasey lay on the floor, she could unhook it.”
When football season started, Burgener was still in the brace and was forced to lead cheerleading practice sitting in a chair. She still had the responsibility of choreographing the cheers and choosing the music.
“It was hard sometimes to tell the cheerleaders what to do when I couldn’t show them what I was talking about,” she told Arkansas Catholic.
At the games she was on the sidelines, watching, not cheering. She was in physical therapy and eventually was able to rejoin the cheerleading squad, but still wearing the brace.
“The homecoming game is really special in high school and since I was elected homecoming queen, my doctor let me take the brace off long enough to walk across the field in my gown. Then it was out of the gown and back in the brace.”
Burgener has been accepted at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville where she plans to major in graphic design. In April she tried out for Arkansas Tech’s cheerleading team and she made it. In addition to an athletic cheerleading scholarship, she also qualified for an academic scholarship based on her ACT scores and her grade point average.
Both Burgener and her mother credit her success during her long recovery to “prayer and the support of family and friends.”
“God was with her,” Phyllis Burgener said. “And he answered my prayer that she is not paralyzed. She had to give up her senior year of running track because of her injury and she deals with pain every day, but she is not paralyzed.”
The Burgeners have been members of St. Mary Church for as long as Kasey Burgener can remember. She and her 14-year-old brother, Sawyer, have been altar servers since the third grade.
“With the back brace and dealing with the pain, I was stuck at home for several weeks. When I could get out, the first place I went was to St. Mary’s. I went to Monday night CYO and to Sunday School on Sunday mornings and Mass.”
Burgener was proud of the fact that she only missed Sunday Mass one week.
She must do stretching and physical therapy exercises every day at home and she is still dealing with pain when sitting or standing for long periods. Doctors told her it would take a year to fully recover from such an injury. But her family and her faith have brought her so far since that frightening day last July.
