Sale barn worker recovering

By LORI COPE | East Texas Edition

January 30, 2003 -- The young man seriously injured in an accident at Emory Livestock Barn on Jan. 7 is home from the hospital and doctors are hopeful for a full recovery, according to the victim's father.

Russell Nipp, 17, suffered serious head and face trauma after a bull charged through a gate in the barn's sorting pen area where he was working. The gate struck Nipp on the left side of the face, crushing his cheekbone, breaking his jaw, and fracturing his skull.

Nipp had worked at the sale barn for about three months when the accident occurred. He was taken by air ambulance to Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler immediately following the accident in Emory.

"For a while we were not sure he would make it," said Nipp's father, Randall Nipp. "It was three days (after the accident) before he began responding."

Yet two weeks after the accident, Nipp was discharged from the hospital.

"He's alert and moving around," his father said on Jan. 23. "There's some brain damage but the doctors think it will not be permanent."

Nipp has a long road to full recovery, and already has a steady schedule of various doctor visits lined up.

While in the hospital, surgery was performed on Jan. 9 to insert a feeding tube and wire his jaw that was broken in two places. Nipp also underwent reconstructive surgery to repair the left side of his face. Damage was done from the "jaw to above the eye socket" and his cheekbone was "in four chunks," Randall Nipp detailed.

The 17-year-old also suffered damage to his left eye. "He can't see out of it real well yet.

"The doctors say it will just take time," he continued about his son's recovery. Hopes are the recovery will be complete within several months.

The good news is Nipp is recovering from the serious accident. "He's doing really great. He has good spells and bad spells, but as he recovers, they (doctors) tell us the bad spells will be shorter and he'll have fewer of them."