The Varsity News

Issue date: 3/3/10 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Michael Martinez

It was supposed to be a good night.

Curtis Eatmon was supposed to be celebrating his first game in a Detroit Titans basketball jersey.

It was Oct. 30, and Eatmon was making the most of his chance with a Division I club, coming off the bench for coach Ray McCallum.

A junior transfer from California, Eatmon had scored 13 points in 19 minutes as Detroit headed to a rout of Ohio Dominican in its first of two exhibition games.

It was supposed to be a good night.

But then, in an instant, everything changed.

Some might call it bad luck, others a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But a split-second decision by Eatmon with 9:50 remaining in the game-and the events that followed-changed his basketball career forever.

Lamar Lee had just made a mid-range jumper to push Detroit's lead to 29 points, and the Panthers were responding with a play.

Eatmon, who had already shown his athleticism on a pair of alley-oops from Donovan Foster, telegraphed a Panther pass and stole the ball from a cutting Keith Jackson.

Jackson's reaction, though unintentional, nearly ended Eatmon's playing career.

"I guess he was trying to steal it back," said Eatmon. "He swung and hit me directly in my face."

The hit instantly crushed Eatmon's orbital bone around his left eye, causing it to sink in and swell, but he wasn't aware of that just then. He said he wasn't aware of the pain either, although he fell to the floor kicking and rolling, immediately pulling his jersey over his face.

"I was in shock," he said. "I tried to look up and I couldn't see out of my left eye. Everything was just black."

He does recall seeing Mike Miller, the head athletic trainer, and Miller's worried, "nasty look."

"I didn't know where the blood came from but with the immediate swelling of the eye, I suspected it was an orbital fracture," Miller said. "But my first thought was that we needed to get him to a hospital."

Eatmon tried to stand, but a combination of nausea and wooziness prevented him from doing so.

McCallum ran onto the court, and what he saw surprised him.

"I've never seen a player have that type of injury," he said. "To run out on the floor and see the blood and everything, it made me sick to my stomach."

Once he left the court, Eatmon was rushed to Henry Ford Hospital, five miles from campus.

"My head was hurting, I was wet, it was cold outside and everything (from the game) was still on," he said. "I kept asking, 'Am I going to be able to see?' "

No one knew the answer right away. Not Miller and not the many opthamologists who were part of a parade of specialists that saw Eatmon when he arrived at the hospital.

The next morning, doctors operated to repair lacerations and cuts to Eatmon's eye.

"That first night was just bad," he said. "They kept trying to pull my eye open, but it was sore and all swollen."

Eatmon stayed in the hospital for five days. His mother flew in from California the next day to see him, and McCallum and the rest of the team spent time with him.

Once he was discharged, he still had trouble seeing. He had to wear sunglasses constantly because his eye was too sensitive to light, but that didn't help his double vision.

Two weeks later, Eatmon underwent surgery to repair the fracture to his orbital bone. A team of doctors led by Dr. Murray Christianson, an ophthalmologist who works in plastic surgery, inserted a rectangular titanium plate into Eatmon's face.

They also repaired the eyeball itself, which was cocked to the right and unable to move left.

Throughout, Eatmon turned to his faith to keep him strong.

"I knew I was going to be healed," he said. "I'm just leaving it in God's hands. I know he has a plan for my life and this is just something I had to go through."

After a month-long rehabilitation, Eatmon returned to the court on Dec. 28.

Although he loves the game, he said he wasn't sure he would continue his basketball career.

"I didn't know," he said. "When I got hit, I wasn't thinking about playing again. I was thinking about whether or not I would see again. But I'll never take (playing basketball) for granted. It makes you appreciate the things you have."

Coach McCallum said Eatmon has shown great perseverance and strength throughout the ordeal.

"It's been a tough year for him, but he battled back," he said. "He dealt with it like a man. It shows you the kind of courage he has."

Though improving, Eatmon's eyesight is still not 100 percent. He continues to see doctors regularly, but the threat of long-term complications has eased.

Whenever he plays, Eatmon wears a pair of plastic goggles to protect his eyes. His injury doesn't affect his game, because he won't let it, he said.

"I can't live in fear," he said, "so I don't."

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