By Andrew Abramson
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
WEST PALM BEACH ó Conner Kempe, The Benjamin School's star quarterback, is fortunate to be alive and was making a surprising recovery just a day after suffering a near-fatal kiteboarding injury.
Kempe, 17, who received last rites Sunday, was removed from a ventilator Monday. He was awake and able to move his arms and legs, though he had not yet regained speech.
Conner's father, Joseph Kempe, said doctors told him that his son, despite sustaining a bruised lung, a brain contusion, a cracked patella and broken bones in his face, is expected to make a full recovery.
"The neurosurgeon said he's very lucky," Joseph Kempe said. "If he wasn't as good of an athlete, he probably wouldn't be alive."
About 10 friends and family members were gathered at St. Mary's Medical Center on Monday, still trying to come to terms with the accident that nearly took Conner Kempe's life.
Kiteboarding is an extreme sport in which the rider stands on a board to ride waves and is powered by the wind from a kite-like sail. Kempe was kiteboarding at Jupiter Beach on Sunday afternoon when he lost control, was lifted into the air by the kite, traveled 300 feet inland and slammed his head onto a sidewalk, according to Jupiter police Sgt. Kelly Sanders.
"I've seen kids getting pulled down the beach, but I've never seen anything like this. They always get control of the board," said surfer Aaron Adamek, who was in the water when the accident occurred. "He was just taken right over the beach. It was bad. I couldn't believe what I was seeing."
Kempe already had lost his board and was at the mercy of the kite when surfers John Rojas and Mark Ashtey saw him being dragged along shrubs at the Ocean Trail condominium complex. Rojas then saw Kempe fly past a wall and toward a fence.
They thought the iron fence would stop his momentum, but Kempe crashed through it.
"We thought he was already dead," Rojas said. "He was getting whipped around like a rag doll with no movement. He wasn't able to control the kite at all. He was just whipping around."
Finally the kite struck a tree, and Rojas saw Kempe's head hit the sidewalk.
Rojas said if the kite had not hit the tree, he believes Kempe would have been taken back out to sea.
"I can't get that image of him getting tossed around out of my head," Rojas said. "If he fully recovers, it's going to be amazing. If you saw how his head was bending. ... The lifeguard was surprised his head didn't just cave in."
Kempe was flown to St. Mary's, where he remained in intensive care Monday.
On Monday, Joseph Kempe was searching for answers. Among them: why his son was not able to release himself from the kite.
Kiteboards have an emergency release that separates the kite from the board. Jeremy Green, owner of Jupiter Kiteboarding in Tequesta, said it's easy to activate, and Conner Kempe should have been able to free himself before he was in danger.
Rojas, however, said he has been told by several kiteboarders that the release can be difficult to activate if the surfer has lost control of the handle.
"We want to know why this happened," Joseph Kempe said.
It's unclear whether the younger Kempe owned or rented the equipment, though Green said Kempe's friends indicated that he used his own board and kite.
Benjamin coach Ron Ream said the football team was stunned when it learned about the accident.
"It was a real shock to hear," Ream said at the hospital. "It's been an emotional roller coaster, but at this point things sound positive."
The coach said he heard that Kempe was fighting for his life Sunday, and he's now hearing that the youth possibly could recover in six weeks. "He's a fighter," Ream said. "He's a tough kid."
Joseph Kempe said his son has been kiteboarding for a year and a half, but Ream said he was not aware that Kempe participated in the sport. He said it's difficult to keep kids from dangerous activities.
"It sounds like something Conner would do. He lives a little on the edge," Ream said. "I'm not sure what you can really do to keep kids from doing things that aren't safe unless you keep them in a bubble."
Green said he arrived at the scene about 30 minutes after Kempe was flown to St. Mary's.
"There were several squalls coming through, and the reason we weren't out there was because of the weather," he said.
Green said Kempe was surfing with a 14-meter kite.
"That's a large kite," he said. "It's overkill with that amount of wind."
Joseph Kempe said doctors are not sure whether his son will remember the incident. "But we'll make sure he does," Kempe said. "We'll show him photos."
For now, while Conner Kempe recovers, his family is grateful he survived such a life-threatening incident.
"I'm so elated by today's prognosis," Joseph Kempe said Monday. "I don't think we could ask for more wonderful news."
Conner Kempe, who passed for 1,918 yards and 13 touchdowns this year, is being recruited by Stanford, Princeton, Virginia, Duke and Florida State, among other schools.
"He's the best quarterback I've ever had, and he's only a junior," said Ream, who's in his 26th year at the North Palm Beach private school. "But football is secondary right now."
