Student recovers after boating accident

    For one Murray State student, a trip to the lake became a frightening way to start the semester.
    Like most of us, Murray State students Brian Kinnaman, and Shane Osbourne never thought it would happen to them. But on Aug. 22 Kinnaman, senior from Berlin, Mo., fell victim to a boating accident.
    Kinnaman said he and his fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi, hosted a back-to-school party on Kentucky Lake to welcome all the members back for a new semester.
    They rented a party barge from Kenlake Marina and headed out on the lake for a day of sun and smiles, he said.  While changing locations in choppy water, a couple of life jackets and flip-flops fell overboard.
    Shane Osborne, president of Alpha Kappa Psi and driver of the boat, stopped the boat and cut off the engine.
    Jessica Carey, a senior from Louisville was there when it happened.
    “I was sitting on the top part of the boat along with a few other people as we were driving to a different part of the lake when a few of the life jackets blew off the back of the boat,” Carey said. “Andy Mize dove off the back of the boat to go get them and around that time Brian jumped (in too).”
    It is uncertain if Kinnaman  was hopping in to retrieve the life jackets, or just to cool off, she said.
    “When I looked over I saw Brian in the water and heard him yelling, but I did not think that anything was seriously wrong,” Carey said. “After 10 to 20 seconds I realized that he really had been hurt and that was about the same time that Shane Osborne, jumped into the water to go and help Brian. Once Shane got to Brian he yelled for someone to call 911.”
    Within seconds Carey was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher and in less than 10 minutes an ambulance was waiting for them at the Kenlake Marina.
    Kinnaman  said Andrew Meade, Shane Osborne and Joe Berghausen kept him afloat and pulled him out of the water. Once on the boat, Emma Wall held the wounds while Kimberly Bridges helped to keep him from going into shock.
     “I think the driver was trying to compensate for the current to catch up with us, except he didn’t see me because I had just jumped in the water,” Kinnaman said. “Then I turned around to see where the boat was, and the engine was right there. It sucked me under and my swimming trunks got caught in the propeller.”
  Kinnaman suffered multiple lacerations to his knees and thighs, some measuring 10 inches long and four inches deep. His patellar tendon in his left knee was severed.
    “The recovery is going surprisingly fast,” Kinnaman  said. “The doctor said I would heal quickly because I’m so young, but I didn’t realize how quickly he meant.”
    Kinnaman was released from the Murray-Calloway County Hospital on Aug. 26, and was temporarily restricted to a wheel chair, unable to bend or lift his legs.
    Two weeks after the accident Kinnaman  is now walking to and from class every day with a walker, and can bend his knees almost a full 90 degrees without pain.
    “I think my physical therapist is trying to kill me,” Kinnaman said.
    Kinnaman said the hardest part of the recovery is being unable to do the little things like putting on his own socks.
    “It has opened my eyes to a new world. I’ve always thought that because I saw a handicap button and thought people with disabilities were doing alright and they have everything they need, but now I realize that’s not always true,” he said. “It kind of made me feel like a second-class citizen.”
    Kinnaman said there was no nerve damage done and his doctor predicts he will heal 100 percent by this time next year.
    “I’ll should be able to walk with a cane by the end of the semester,” he said.
    David Borum can be reached at david.borum@murraystate.edu.