ORLANDO, Fla. – She lay strapped on a gurney on a sidewalk outside Amway
Arena, still in her blue top and black spandex shorts, held in place by
several belts and a white neck brace. A medic hovered over her, grabbed
one of her hands and asked her to squeeze. She did. The medic asked if
she was OK, and she nodded ever so slightly. She tried to move her legs
and wiggled them. Then she tried to move a little more
and her face
contorted in pain.
Her stunt partner, covered in sweat, held back tears. The medic reached up and stroked his back.
Early in Tuesday's Magic game against the Knicks, an Orlando Magic stunt
team member named Jamie Woode fell head-first during a routine and
remained motionless on the floor for several minutes in front of a
silenced crowd. Several who watched the scene said they thought she was
paralyzed.
Those who watched the fall said the stunt leading up to the incident
didn't go exactly as planned and seemed awkward, yet it was followed
immediately by another stunt that involved Woode being thrown high up
into the air. Woode's male stunt partner couldn't catch her and she
fell. The arena filled with gasps and fell silent. Players from both the
Magic and Knicks stood at their benches and looked on in worry.
Woode,
a former cheerleader at the University of Central Florida, was lifted
onto a gurney. She then reached up with both arms and waved as fans
applauded her. She was then rushed through the concourse and out onto
the sidewalk across from a parking garage.
As she and her teammate waited with medics for an ambulance, Woode was
breathing on her own and speaking, though she appeared to be in
considerable pain. She was eventually lifted into an ambulance, covered
in a navy blue blanket and taken to the nearby Orlando Regional Medical
Center with her partner, who didn't give his name, sitting in the
passenger seat.
